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Secular rise in economically valuable personality traits
Markus Jokela1, Tuomas Pekkarinen2,3, Matti Sarvimäki4,3
1Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
Summary
Personality traits are increasing over time, similar to cognitive abilities. This "Flynn effect" for personality predicts higher income and is less influenced by family background changes.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Behavioral Genetics
- Human Development
Background:
- Documented trends exist for physical and cognitive human evolution.
- Limited understanding of personality trait evolution over time.
Purpose of the Study:
- Analyze long-term trends in personality traits.
- Compare personality evolution to cognitive ability trends.
- Investigate the influence of family background on these trends.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a standardized personality test.
- Analyzed data from 419,523 Finnish men born between 1962-1976.
- Examined trends across different socioeconomic and demographic groups.
Main Results:
- Observed steady increases in personality traits linked to higher income.
- Magnitude of personality trends parallels cognitive ability increases (0.2-0.6 SD).
- Personality trends are less driven by family background composition compared to cognitive ability trends.
Conclusions:
- Identified a
- Flynn effect
- for personality traits.
- Personality gains show significant practical importance, comparable to cognitive gains.
- Improvements in parental education contribute to observed trends.
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