Personality traits across countries: Support for similarities rather than differences

Abstract

In the current climate of migration and globalization, personality characteristics of individuals from different countries have received a growing interest. Previous research has established reliable differences in personality traits across countries. The present study extends this research by examining 30 personality traits in 22 countries, based on an online survey in English with large national samples (NTotal = 130,602). The instrument used was a comprehensive, open-source measure of the Five Factor Model (FFM) (IPIP-NEO-120). We postulated that differences in personality traits between countries would be small, labeling this a Similarities Hypothesis. We found support for this in three stages. First, similarities across countries were observed for model fits for each of the five personality trait structures. Second, within-country sex differences for the five personality traits showed similar patterns across countries. Finally, the overall the contribution to personality traits from countries was less than 2%. In other words, the relationship between a country and an individual’s personality traits, however interesting, are small. We conclude that the most parsimonious explanation for the current and past findings is a cross-country personality Similarities Hypothesis.

Sex differences in personality are larger in gender equal countries: Replicating and extending a surprising finding

“…The mean Cronbach's alpha reliability for the five trait factors were high (Neuroticism = .90, Extraversion = .89, Openness = .81, Agreeableness = .85, Conscientiousness = .90). Model fits for respective five trait factor structures were slightly above the common cutoff RMSEA = .05, and can be studied in more detail in Kajonius and Mac Giolla (2017).…”

Global sex differences in personality: Replication with an open online dataset

“…Studies conducted with the Five‐Factor Model of personality (also known as the Big Five) show that, averaging across countries, women score about 0.4–0.5 standard deviations higher in Agreeableness and Neuroticism (Cohen's d ≈ −0.40 to −0.50; by convention, we use negative values to indicate higher scores in females). Sex differences in the other domains—Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Openness—are smaller, typically 0.1 SD or less (see Del Giudice, ; Hyde, ; Kajonius & Mac Giolla, ; Lippa, ; Löckenhoff et al, ; Schmitt, Realo, Voracek, & Allik, ). Assuming normal distributions, these figures imply that the overlap between male and female distributions ranges from about 80% to almost 100%, depending on the trait.…”

Neuroticism, conscientiousness, and in vivo Alzheimer pathologies measured by amyloid PET and MRI

“…However, despite associations of personality profile with culture‐level variables, personality traits are known to be commonly summarized by the five‐factor model in most cultures around the world, including Korea as well as East Asia, which makes cross‐cultural comparisons possible . In general, variabilities due to cultural differences are much smaller when compared to those from individual differences, which accounts for only 2% of total values . Based on these previous studies, it can be assumed that similar patterns of association between personality traits and in vivo AD pathologies can be commonly observed in populations with different cultural backgrounds from our study sample.…”