{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The big five and beyond","description":"If you've heard anything about the study of human personality, you've probably heard about the \u201cbig five.\u201d This is a framework that attempts to characterize human personality in terms of five broad factors or dimensions\u2014neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. The big five framework has been enormously influential, generating heaps and heaps of data, and study after study on the stability of personality, on the factors that shape our personalities, on how our personalities predict success and satisfaction. But is the big five really the best we can do? What does it miss? What does it mask? Where should the science of human personality go next? My guest today is Dr. Ren\u00e9 M\u00f5ttus. Ren\u00e9 is Professor of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and a leading researcher in the scientific study of human personality. He\u2019s also one of the hosts of the Personality Psychology Podcast. Here, Ren\u00e9 and I talk about the history and colossal success of the \u201cbig five.\u201d We consider whether personality is ultimately rooted in our biology\u2014and, if so, how. We dwell on each of the five factors and dig into the facets and nuances within them. These are, actually, technical terms in the field for the more granular aspects of personality that sit within each of these broad dimensions. We talk about personality change across the lifespan, and what factors seem to be driving it. We talk about personality and occupation, personality and birth order, personality and gender. Along the way, Ren\u00e9 and I touch on the Myers-Briggs; an alternative to the Big 5 known as the HEXACO model; the power of explicit questionnaires over experiments; the concept of "personality age"; the social investment theory; honesty, humility, humor, jealousy; life satisfaction; gene-environment correlations; and why evolutionary stories about personality seem to fail. Alright friends, I think you'll like this one. On to my conversation with Dr. Ren\u00e9 M\u00f5ttus. Enjoy!   A transcript of this episode is available here.   Notes and links 5:30 \u2013 For a popular discussion of the Myers-Briggs and other personality tests, see here. For a book-length treatment of the history of the Myers-Briggs test, see here. 11:30 \u2013 For Dr. M\u00f5ttus\u2019s preprint on \u201cpersonality age,\u201d see here. 17:00 \u2013 For our episode on animal personality with Dr. Kate Laskowski, see here. 18:00 \u2013 For Dr. Daniel Nettle\u2019s book on personality, see here. 22:00 \u2013 See Dr. M\u00f5ttus\u2019s blog post on the genetic basis of personality. 25:00 \u2013 For our episode with Dr. Eric Turkheimer about IQ, see here. For Dr. Turkheimer\u2019s \u201cphenotypic null hypothesis\u201d about personality, see here. 28:00 \u2013 For a theoretical paper by Dr. M\u00f5ttus and colleagues about \u201ccarving personality at its joints\u201d and \u201cbig few models\u201d\u2014among many other issues\u2014see here. 31:00 \u2013 See here for a classic overview of the \u201cbig five.\u201d 38:00 \u2013 For an overview of the predictive power of the \u201cbig five,\u201d see here. 40:00 \u2013 On the topic of \u201cnuances,\u201d see Dr. M\u00f5ttus\u2019s recent co-authored paper here. 43:00 \u2013 For the study by Dr. M\u00f5ttus and colleagues of the personality profiles of different occupations, see here. For an online tool that allows you to explore the data, see here. For an online tool that matches your personality with the personality profiles of different occupations, see here. 47:00 \u2013 A classic paper on the HEXACO model of personality. 51:00 \u2013 An example of a recent effort to map out the \u201cfacets\u201d of personality. 1:11:00 \u2013 For a study on the possibility of gene-environment correlations in the area of music, see here. For the study by Dr. M\u00f5ttus and colleagues on children \u201cbecoming less alike\u201d through adolescence, see here. 1:18:00 \u2013 For a classic statement of the \u201cfive factor theory,\u201d see here. 1:20:00 \u2013 The Wikipedia page for the idea of the \u201cgloomy prospect\u201d is here. This is also the name of Dr. Turkheimer\u2019s newsletter. 1:22:00 \u2013 The latest installment in the longstanding debate about birth order and personality. 1:27:00 \u2013 A paper comparing the \u201cfive factor\u201d and \u201csocial investment\u201d accounts of personality development. 1:33:00 \u2013 For a recent paper by Dr. M\u00f5ttus and colleagues on personality and gender, see here. 1:38:00 \u2013 A research article on the Estonian Biobank.   Recommendations \u2018Life Events and Personality Change: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,\u2019 by B\u00fchler et al. \u2018Personality stability and change: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies,\u2019 by Bleidorn et al. \u2018Choosing prediction over explanation in psychology: Lessons from machine learning,\u2019 by Yarkoni & Westfall   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com.  For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Twitter (@ManyMindsPod) or Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social). ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"