Meta-analytic relations between personality and cognitive ability

Acceptance of potential risks in adult orthodontic patients and the influence of personality traits

OBJECTIVES

To determine acceptance of potential risks in orthodontic treatment and whether it could be affected by personality traits of patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Two hundred sixty-one adult participants consulting for orthodontic treatment were involved in this cross-sectional study. Acceptance of 18 orthodontic risks was investigated with a structured questionnaire. Personality traits of included patients were assessed with a validated Chinese version of the Big Five Inventory. Statistical analyses were performed as appropriate, and potential correlations were identified using multivariate binary logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Acceptability of the investigated orthodontic risks ranged from 47.1% to 87.0%, with periodontitis being the least accepted. Length of treatment (P = .015) and relapse (P = .007) were more unacceptable to older patients. Female participants showed less tolerance to periodontitis (P = .017) than male counterparts. Among the five dimensions of personality traits, conscientiousness was significantly associated with acceptance of tooth extraction and associated risks (odds ratio [OR] = 1.131, P = .002), problems eating (OR = 1.182, P < .001), problems speaking (OR = 1.111, P = .022), and appliance breakage (OR = 1.109, P = .008), while openness was a significant predictor to the acceptance of length of treatment (OR = 1.090, P = .044).

CONCLUSIONS

Among patients seeking orthodontic treatment, periodontitis was the least accepted risk. A significant association was found between the acceptance of certain orthodontic risks and personality traits, especially conscientiousness and openness.

Individual differences in the illusion of self-motion (vection): The role of field dependence, anomalous perceptual experiences, and tolerance of ambiguity

Vection is an illusion of self-motion that arises from conflicting sensory information. There are large individual differences in experiencing vection, indicating a potential role for individual-difference factors in this illusion. Here, we examined the role of field dependence, anomalous perceptual experiences (a specific domain of psychotic-like experiences) and personality disposition of tolerance of ambiguity. We analyzed data from 170 participants (84 male individuals, 86 female individuals). Biological sex had no significant effect on any of the vection measures. However, we found that higher field dependence was associated with faster onset of vection, and that higher prevalence of anomalous perceptual experiences and lower tolerance of ambiguity were associated with longer duration and higher intensity of the illusion. These results suggest that individual-difference factors reflect internal predispositions that guide the interpretation of incoming sensory signals and, especially in conflicting and ambiguous situations, can modulate the process of creating accurate or illusory percepts.

Personality and good business judgement: the bright and dark side of business reasoning

The current study explored the relationship between measures of "bright-side" and "dark-side" personality traits and business reasoning (BR)/judgment using the Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI). Participants were a global sample (N = 2,342) who completed the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), a bright-side trait measure; the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), a dark-side trait measure; and the HBRI, which is similar to a measure of general cognitive ability. The analyses showed gender effects (men scored higher) but not age effects. Correlation and regression analyses showed that Learning Approach and Adjustment traits were positively associated with business reasoning, while Prudence and Inquisitive traits were negatively associated with business reasoning. In cases where significant dark-side factor relationships were observed, they were negatively associated with business reasoning, except for Reserved and Imaginative traits. However, these traits accounted for relatively little of the variance (approximately 5%) in business reasoning. Stable, ambitious, and intellectually curious individuals who are not high on Conscientiousness and have few dark-side traits appear to be better at business reasoning.

The Relationship Between Intelligence and Personality Traits Differentiated by Gender in Spanish Adolescents

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

Intelligence and personality are the most researched constructs in the scientific literature in the field of psychology. Also, the relationship between them has been studied, with controversial results. The present study examines the relationship between intelligence and personality, considering, on the one hand, the influence of gender and, on the other, the predictive capacity of intelligence for personality traits.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 1166 participants between 11 and 16 years old from the Canary Islands. The Big Five Personality Questionnaire for Children, Adolescents and Adults (MASK-5) and the Adaptive Test of General Intelligence (Matrices-TAI) were used. For the analysis, a quantitative approach with an ex post facto, cross-sectional design was used. The analysis was carried out with SPSS v.26 and Jamovi v.2.3.21.

RESULTS

The findings revealed non-significant gender differences in intelligence and personality. The regression model between the two constructs was only significant for the dimension consciousness (F(1,1164) = 3.906, p = 0.048; ɳp2 = 0.003) and its facet perseverance (F(1,1164) = 5.953, p = 0.015; ɳp2 = 0.005), but the effect size was small in both cases. When considering girls and boys separately, the model was not significant for boys, whereas for girls, the dimension consciousness (F(1,595) = 6.148, p = 0.013; ɳp2 = 0.010) and its facet achievement (F(1,595) = 8.227, p = 0.004; ɳp2 = 0.014), as well as the facet humility (agreeableness) (F(1,595) = 6.472, p = 0.011; ɳp2 = 0.011), were significant, but again, with small effect sizes. Nevertheless, low observed power results for the whole sample and the boys sample suggest the need to increase the sample size.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings are discussed, and future lines of research in this field of study are proposed.

Cognitive maintenance in older adults in social classes: a secondary analysis of the longitudinal SHARE data

BACKGROUND

Cognitive maintenance-defined as a capacity to maintain good or excellent cognitive functioning-is a valuable ageing outcome. Socio-demographic, dementia risk and protective factors may contribute differently to it across social classes. However, these effects have not been adequately assessed yet.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to evaluate the effects of socio-demographic, risks and protective factors on the probability of cognitive maintenance in older adults stratified by social classes.

METHODS

Participants aged 65-85 years at the baseline from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (Waves 5 (2013) and 7 (2017)) were included. Cognitive maintenance was operationalised as six or more words recalled on the 10-word delayed recall test at baseline and follow-up. Dementia-specific risks and protective factors were selected from global strategies for dementia prevention. Multilevel logistic regressions with the country of residence as a random-effect variable were constructed to compare the relative effect of contributors across social classes.

RESULTS

20 960 participants from 14 countries were included in the analysis. The pseudo-R2 was 0.24, 0.28, 0.41 and 0.32 in participants of higher, middle, lower and not known social classes. Age, number of leisure activities and country of residence were significant predictors for all social classes. Effects of gender, depression, obesity, frailty, alcohol, education, occupation and personality traits vary across social classes.

CONCLUSION

Studying contributors to cognitive maintenance separately in social classes may show possible targets of public health strategies for improving cognitive health in populations and reducing social inequalities in cognitive health.

A reduced perception of sensory information is linked with elevated boredom in people with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Our brains have evolved to represent and process sensory information from our environment and use it to guide behavior. The perception of sensory information and subsequent responses, such as boredom, however, vary across situations and individuals, impressively depicted by patients with attentional disorders who show extensive boredom across many situations. Despite these implications, it remains unclear how environmental features and individual traits act together to allow effective transmission of sensory information, and how both factors relate to boredom experience. We present a framework to address this issue, exposing human participants to text stimuli with defined objective information content, while assessing perceived information, boredom and text sentiment. Using information theory to formalize external and internal factors of information transmission, we find that lower information transmission predicts higher boredom. Moreover, individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder show lower information transmission, compared to a control sample. Together, delineating the interaction of sensory information content with individual traits, boredom emerges as a situational consequence of reduced information-decoding, heightened in ADHD.

Evolving the job demands-resources framework to JD-R 3.0: The impact of after-hours connectivity and organizational support on employee psychological distress

This study extends the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework by proposing JD-R 3.0, which explores the dynamic and nonlinear relationships among Work Connectivity Behavior After-Hours (WCBA), Perceived Organizational Support (POS), and employee outcomes, with a specific focus on psychological contract violation (PCV) and psychological distress. Data were collected from 625 employees in a large financial organization in China across two waves, and polynomial regression and response surface analysis were used for hypothesis testing. The results reveal that in incongruent scenarios (where WCBA is high and POS is low) employees experience significantly higher levels of psychological contract violation and psychological distress. In congruent scenarios, where both WCBA and POS are aligned, POS acts as a buffer, mitigating the negative effects of WCBA on distress. However, the protective effect of POS diminishes beyond certain thresholds, resulting in a "too-much-of-a-good-thing" effect, where high WCBA paired with high POS increases psychological contract violation and distress. These findings advance JD-R theory by emphasizing the importance of maintaining a balance between job demands and resources and introducing the concept of diminishing returns for job resources. The study offers both theoretical contributions to the development of JD-R 3.0 and practical insights for managing employee well-being in the context of constant connectivity and increasing technological demands.

Embodied Cognition and the Structure of Personality: An Exploratory Study of Longitudinal Pathways From Early Psychomotor Function

OBJECTIVE

To explore the developmental pathways linking infant psychomotor function with personality in late adolescence through cognitive, social, and self-regulation skills. The broader research question, seen through the lens of embodied cognition, is whether cognition and personality in youth develop from basic sensorimotor and communicative systems in infancy.

METHOD

The sample included 9202 participants from a representative UK birth cohort. A structural equation model examined the prospective associations between motor and communicative functions at age 9 months, cognition, self-regulation, and prosociality at 5 years, and the five-factor model of personality at 17 years. The associations between psychomotor function and the meta-traits of stability and plasticity were also explored.

RESULTS

Even after controlling for confounders and correcting for multiple paths, there was robust evidence that psychomotor development significantly predicts personality structure, with indirect pathways mediated by self-regulation skills and general or social cognitive skills in middle childhood. While infant communicative function was significantly associated with both meta-traits, gross motor function was significantly associated with plasticity but not stability.

CONCLUSIONS

Early psychomotor function may have long-term effects on personality, mediated by cognitive, social, and self-regulation skills. This finding can inform the development of socio-educational interventions and tailored curricula in early childhood education.

Boredom and curiosity: the hunger and the appetite for information

Boredom and curiosity are common everyday states that drive individuals to seek information. Due to their functional relatedness, it is not trivial to distinguish whether an action, for instance in the context of a behavioral experiment, is driven by boredom or curiosity. Are the two constructs opposite poles of the same cognitive mechanism, or distinct states? How do they interact? Can they co-exist and complement each other? Here, we systematically review similarities and dissimilarities of boredom and curiosity with respect to their subjective experience, functional role, and neurocognitive implementation. We highlight the usefulness of Information Theory for formalizing information-seeking in the context of both states and provide guidelines for their experimental investigation. Our emerging view is that despite their distinction on an experiential level, boredom and curiosity are closely related on a functional level, providing complementary drives on information-seeking: boredom, similar to hunger, arises from a lack of information and drives individuals to avoid contexts with low information yield, whereas curiosity constitutes a mechanism similar to appetite, pulling individuals toward specific sources of information. We discuss predictions arising from this perspective, concluding that boredom and curiosity are independent, but coalesce to optimize behavior in environments providing varying levels of information.

The future of neuropsychology is digital, theory-driven, and Bayesian: a paradigmatic study of cognitive flexibility

Introduction

This study explores the transformative potential of digital, theory-driven, and Bayesian paradigms in neuropsychology by combining digital technologies, a commitment to evaluating theoretical frameworks, and Bayesian statistics. The study also examines theories of executive function and cognitive flexibility in a large sample of neurotypical individuals (N = 489).

Methods

We developed an internet-based Wisconsin Card-Sorting Task (iWCST) optimized for online assessment of perseveration errors (PE). Predictions of the percentage of PE, PE (%), in non-repetitive versus repetitive situations were derived from the established supervisory attention system (SAS) theory, non-repetitive PE (%) < repetitive PE (%), and the novel goal-directed instrumental control (GIC) theory, non-repetitive PE (%) > repetitive PE (%).

Results

Bayesian t-tests revealed the presence of a robust error suppression effect (ESE) indicating that PE are less likely in repetitive situations than in non-repetitive situations, contradicting SAS theory with posterior model probability p < 0.001 and confirming GIC theory with posterior model probability p > 0.999. We conclude that repetitive situations support cognitive set switching in the iWCST by facilitating the retrieval of goal-directed, instrumental memory that associates stimulus features, actions, and outcomes, thereby generating the ESE in neurotypical individuals. We also report exploratory data analyses, including a Bayesian network analysis of relationships between iWCST measures.

Discussion

Overall, this study serves as a paradigmatic model for combining digital technologies, theory-driven research, and Bayesian statistics in neuropsychology. It also provides insight into how this integrative, innovative approach can advance the understanding of executive function and cognitive flexibility and inform future research and clinical applications.

Taking another look at intelligence and personality using an eye-tracking approach

Intelligence and personality are both key drivers of learning. This study extends prior research on intelligence and personality by adopting a behavioral-process-related eye-tracking approach. We tested 182 adults on fluid intelligence and the Big Five personality traits. Eye-tracking information (gaze patterns) was recorded while participants completed the intelligence test. Machine learning models showed that personality explained 3.18% of the variance in intelligence test scores, with Openness and, surprisingly, Agreeableness most meaningfully contributing to the prediction. Facet-level measures of personality explained a larger amount of variance (7.67%) in intelligence test scores than the trait-level measures, with the largest coefficients obtained for Ideas and Values (Openness) and Compliance and Trust (Agreeableness). Gaze patterns explained a substantial amount of variance in intelligence test performance (35.91%). Gaze patterns were unrelated to the Big Five personality traits, but some of the facets (especially Self-Consciousness from Neuroticism and Assertiveness from Extraversion) were related to gaze. Gaze patterns reflected the test-solving strategies described in the literature (constructive matching, response elimination) to some extent. A combined feature vector consisting of gaze-based predictions and personality traits explained 37.50% of the variance in intelligence test performance, with significant unique contributions from both personality and gaze patterns. A model that included personality facets and gaze explained 38.02% of the variance in intelligence test performance. Although behavioral data thus clearly outperformed "traditional" psychological measures (Big Five personality) in predicting intelligence test performance, our results also underscore the independent contributions of personality and gaze patterns in predicting intelligence test performance.

How big five personality traits influence information sharing on social media: A meta analysis

Research interest in information sharing behavior on social media has significantly increased over the past decade. However, empirical studies on the relationship between Big Five personality traits and information sharing behavior have yielded contradictory conclusions. We aimed to investigate how Big Five personality influences information sharing behavior on social media. This meta-analysis systematically reviewed high-quality studies indexed by web of science and CNKI from the past decade (n = 27, with 31969 samples) and performed a meta-analysis to examine the association between Big Five personality traits and information sharing behavior. The literature search was performed in September 2023. The meta-analysis results showed that extraversion (β = 0.05**) had a positive relationship with information sharing behavior on social media. Agreeableness (β = -0.06**), conscientiousness (β = -0.03**), and neuroticism (β = -0.03**) had negative relationships with information sharing behavior on social media. However, the relationship between openness and information sharing behavior was not clearly observed due to insufficient research. The meta-analysis results are made available to the scientific community to enhance research, comprehension, and utilization of social media.

Grandiose narcissism associates with higher cognitive performance under stress through more efficient attention distribution: An eye-tracking study

Narcissism is a part of the Dark Triad that consists also of the traits of Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Two main types of narcissism exist: grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Being a Dark Triad trait, narcissism is typically associated with negative outcomes. However, recent research suggests that at least the grandiose type may be linked (directly or indirectly) to positive outcomes including lower levels of psychopathology, higher school grades in adolescents, deeper and more strategic learning in university students and higher cognitive performance in experimental settings. The current pre-registered, quasi-experimental study implemented eye-tracking to assess whether grandiose narcissism indirectly predicts cognitive performance through wider distribution of attention on the Raven's Progressive Matrices task. Fifty-four adults completed measures of the Dark Triad, self-esteem and psychopathology. Eight months to one year later, participants completed the Raven's, while their eye-movements were monitored during high stress conditions. When controlling for previous levels of psychopathology, grandiose narcissism predicted higher Raven's scores indirectly, through increased variability in the number of fixations across trials. These findings suggest that grandiose narcissism predicts higher cognitive performance, at least in experimental settings, and call for further research to understand the implications of this seemingly dark trait for performance across various settings.

Personality traits and cognitive reserve-High openness benefits cognition in the presence of age-related brain changes

Cognitive reserve explains differential susceptibility of cognitive performance to neuropathology. We investigated whether certain personality traits underlie cognitive reserve and are accordingly associated with better cognition and less cognitive decline in the presence of age-related brain changes. We included healthy adults aged 19-80 years for cross-sectional (N=399) and longitudinal (N=273, mean follow-up time=5 years, SD=0.7 years) analyses. Assessment of the BIG5 personality traits openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism was questionnaire-based. Each cognitive domain (perceptual speed, memory, fluid reasoning, vocabulary) was measured with up to six tasks. Cognitive domain-specific brain status variables were obtained by combining 77 structural brain measures into single scores using elastic net regularization. These brain status variables explained up to 43.1% of the variance in cognitive performance. We found that higher openness was associated with higher fluid reasoning and better vocabulary after controlling for brain status, age, and sex. Further, lower brain status was associated with a greater decline in perceptual speed only in individuals with low openness. We conclude that high openness benefits cognitive reserve.

Association of personality facets and cognition in the Lifelines population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND

Personality traits have been associated with cognitive functioning and risk of cognitive decline. Fewer studies have investigated how personality facets are associated with cognition in large cohorts with a prospective design.

METHODS

The association between eight personality facets and cognition (speed measures reflecting psychomotor speed and visual attention; hit rate measures reflecting visual learning and working memory) was analyzed in middle-aged adults from the Lifelines cohort (N = 79911; age 43 ± 11 years).

RESULTS

High hostility, high vulnerability, low excitement seeking, and low competence were associated with worse cognitive performance on all tasks. Impulsivity-related facets had weak and differential associations, with self-discipline negatively associated with accuracy and deliberation negatively associated with speed. These associations remained largely unchanged when accounting for lifestyle factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity). The associations with cognition were stronger in older people for impulsiveness, deliberation, and hostility, while stronger in younger people for excitement seeking, self-discipline, and vulnerability.

CONCLUSION

In a large population-based sample with a broad age range, the associations of personality facets with cognitive functioning had small effect sizes, were independent of lifestyle factors, and varied with age and among facets within the same personality domain. These findings highlight the importance of developmental stages and facet-level research in personality-cognition associations.

Looking on the (B)right Side of Life: Cognitive Ability and Miscalibrated Financial Expectations

It is a puzzle why humans tend toward unrealistic optimism, as it can lead to excessively risky behavior and a failure to take precautionary action. Using data from a large nationally representative U.K. sample ( N = 36 , 312 ) , our claim is that optimism bias is partly a consequence of low cognition-as measured by a broad range of cognitive skills, including memory, verbal fluency, fluid reasoning and numerical reasoning. We operationalize unrealistic optimism as the difference between a person's financial expectation and the financial realization that follows, measured annually over a decade. All else being equal, those highest on cognitive ability experience a 22% (53.2%) increase in the probability of realism (pessimism) and a 34.8% reduction in optimism compared with those lowest on cognitive ability. This suggests that the negative consequences of an excessively optimistic mindset may, in part, be a side product of the true driver, low cognitive ability.