big_five – Our Human Minds

The Big Five’s Agreeableness: An In Depth Analysis

Followed by a series of five personality traits from the Big Five personality model, the next personality dimension that we will look into is agreeableness. The word “agree” indicates the likelihood to say yes, to compromise, or to agree to do things, either for oneself or others. Agreeableness measures the tendency to be kind, friendly, cooperative, and supportive. It shows how well one gets along with with others in a group-based environment.

Highly agreeable people exhibit prosocial forms of behavior. They tend to be more sociable, considerate, tender-minded, and are concerned with the welfare of others. Low scorers tend to be more tough-minded and consider their interests and benefits above others. Sometimes, they are perceived as cynical, domineering, and antagonistic.

If you want to know how agreeable you are, we recommend you taking the Big Five Personality Test here

1. The importance of agreeableness: generate positive thoughts and improve mental health

Agreeableness helps to form relationships with peace and empathy, trust and harmonization. It also helps to minimize the possibility of conflicts and arguments. On an individual scale, agreeableness enables one to harbor and nurture positive thoughts and actions towards others.

*Agreeableness, if placed at the right place and to the right people, attracts positivity and reduce negativity*

2. The six facets of agreeableness

According to the International Personality Item Pool, each dimension of the Big Five Personality Traits comprises six facets, or also known as sub traits. The facets of the conscientiousness domain are:

Trust: to believe that someone or something is initially reliable, ethical, and truthful. A trusting individual tends to believe people are well-intentioned and fair. The opposite of being trusting is skeptical. Skeptical individuals tend not to trust others easily without considering other aspects. They tend to base on various other factors, such as their personal experience, facts, or evidence, to trust a person.

Morality: This facet shows the desire to be sincere and candid as opposed in dealing with others. Those who have high levels of morality tend to lean towards being sincere and kind-hearted with others. Those with low levels of morality believe a certain amount of deception or manipulation is needed in communications and relationships. It should be noted that this facet is not about being wrong or right, but rather the degree an individual feels comfortable and pleasant to interact straightforwardly with others.

Cooperation: the willingness to work together with others for a common goal, purpose, or benefit. These people do not like confrontations and tend to compromise. They are often not concerned much with their own needs or interests. Those who tend not to cooperate efficiently with others are more competitive and prioritize their personal needs and benefits.

According to Dr. Todd Grande, looking at the overall personality trait, cooperation is one of the facets to be associated the most with agreeableness, in terms of the popular conception. For instance, a manager would view an agreeable employee as cooperative toward his or her co-workers.

*Cooperation is considered the most associated facet to the agreeableness trait, especially in working environments, based on the popular conception*

Altruism: the willingness or the desire to help others. Altruistic people find it fulfilling to help others in need. People with low levels of altruism might appear to be helpful towards others, yet the way they see these kind actions is different. Instead of feeling self-fulfilling and joyful when seeing others receive help, they feel inconvenient and look at it as an imposition.

Modesty: how willing someone is to claim himself or herself better than others. Modest people do not like making this claim and would rarely consider themselves at a higher position than others. The opposite of modest is arrogant people who act as if they are superior to others.

Sympathy: the ability to understand and resonate with other people’s feelings, particularly that of sad events and sorrows. They are better at identifying, understanding, and connecting with human sufferings. Less sympathetic people lack the ability to recognize and harmonize with sorrowful experiences others are going through.

Sympathy, in different situations, is considered as justice versus mercy. These two aspects appear as two extremes of a spectrum, where sympathetic individuals tend to lean towards mercy, and less sympathetic ones tend to lean towards the justice side.

Sympathy More — Sympathetic people can understand and resonate well with other people’s emotions

3. Suggested careers for highly agreeable people

Highly agreeable people enjoy assisting others and feel more fulfilled when seeing others getting better from the help they receive. An ideal working environment for agreeable people would be a place that allows them to build connections and make positive contributions to the community.

Potential job ideas for agreeable people:

Teacher / lecturer

Nurse / caregiver

NGO / NPO leader

Religious Leader

Counselor

Community service staff

4. Suggested careers for those with low levels of agreeableness

Those who tend to behave bold, assertive, and tough-minded are not suitable for community-related jobs. They find it hard to place others’ needs and benefits above or emotionally connect to others. These people strive best in environments that focus on the outcomes, welcome counter opinions, and allow their competitiveness to glow.

Potential jobs ideas for low scorers in the agreeableness trait:

Scientist / researcher

Politicians

Programmer

Data analyst

Manager / director / association leader

Accountant

Engineer / mechanic

Author / writing content creator

5.Interesting facts about agreeableness

5.1 Agreeable people shouldn’t be perceived as “less intelligent”

Being too agreeable might lead to some behaviors that could be regarded as less intelligent. Agreeable people place their needs and interests lower than that of others. For this reason, agreeable individuals are perceived as less intelligent, especially in competitive working environments.

However, how agreeableness is related to intelligence depends on how one chooses to define intelligence. Studies found that agreeableness has zero correlation with objective tests of general intelligence.

5.2 People who consider themselves superior to others tend to appear disagreeable

Disagreeable personalities were found in those who perceived themselves at a higher position than others, regardless of their actual ability. This is a study result from Furnham & Buchanan on “Personality, gender, and self-perceived intelligence.” This has significant implications because that means agreeableness is not a fixed trait but can also change fluidly. A person can be more agreeable to a superior but less so with someone in an inferior position.

5.3 Agreeable individuals are more likely to experience Placebo Effect

A study published in 2013 found that there is a higher likelihood for agreeable individuals to undergo the placebo effect. For agreeable participants, they appeared to be more relieved by the placebo effect than other subjects having lower levels of agreeableness. They are less likely to object to the experimenters, more motivated to please them, and more hopeful for positive outcomes.

5.4 Agreeable individuals are less bothered by grammatical mistakes

Subtle errors in emails might annoy some people, yet this is exceptional for agreeable people. The way personality affects an individual’s reaction to email mistakes was thoroughly discussed in this study. The study results suggested that agreeable people are less sensitive to grammatical errors in emails. It would be wrong to claim that agreeable people have worse grammar than others. They simply do not want to exaggerate the minor mistakes and willing to pass them through.

5.5 Social media is mostly used for positively connecting with others, rather than complaining, by agreeable people

How personality affects the usage of social media platforms has become the subject for a study in 2013. According to the results, agreeable people are more likely to use social media to build and maintain positive connections, rather than a platform for complaints and judgemental opinions. Another interesting study found that agreeable job applicants are less likely to be found badmouthing others on Facebook.

Social Media Sharing and Mobile Phone Networking Concept, Businesswoman is Using Smartphone for Communication Chat While Drinking a Cup of Coffee. Technology Connection for Entertainment Media Network , #Aff, #Concept, #Networking, #Smartphone, #Businesswoman, #Phone #Ad — The primary purpose of social media – building connections – is utilized the most by highly agreeable people

6. Conclusion: agreeableness needs to be utilized efficiently in the right place

Most people fall somewhere between agreeableness and disagreeableness. Depending on the circumstance, agreeableness can be perceived as a strength or weakness. On the overall perspective, agreeableness is a personal positivity that shows trust, cooperation, and support. This is a good thing and has become the keystone ingredient for organizational harmonization. However, in circumstances where assertiveness and counter opinions are more welcomed and focused, it is better to be tough-minded and competitive to protect one’s self-benefits.

References:

Six facets of the agreeableness personality trait, Dr. Todd Grande

Agreeableness has a zero correlation with objective tests of general intelligence, DeYoung, 2011

There is a higher likelihood for agreeable individuals to undergo the placebo effect

Agreeable people are less sensitive to minor writing errors in emails

Social media is used for positive connection purposes by agreeable people

The Pros And Cons Of Conscientiousness

Hello dear readers, before continuing to read this article, maybe take a few minutes to ask yourself these questions:

Are you more detail-oriented or big-picture?
Do you tend to “work hard” first before “play hard”?
Do you rarely break promises or show up late?
Do you often plan, decide, and like to put stuff on paper?
Do you enjoy having a clear schedule rather than going with the flow?

If most of the answers are yes, you might be an individual scoring high in the conscientiousness trait.

Conscientiousness is a fundamental personality trait—one of the Big Five personality model. This trait reflects the tendency for an individual to be accountable and reliable, organized and detail-oriented. High scorers tend to be ambitious at work and enjoy adhering to norms and rules. On the contrary, people with low levels of conscientiousness are likely more big-picture oriented and spontaneous.

If you want to know how conscientious are you, we recommend to take the Big Five Personality Test here.

The Six Facets of Conscientiousness

According to the International Personality Item Pool, each dimension of the Big Five Personality Traits comprises six facets, or sub traits. The facets of the conscientiousness domain are:

Self-Efficacy: the ability to accomplish things, and desire to achieve and complete tasks. Self-Efficacy enables one to believe that they are competent and self-controlled. Low scorers in conscientiousness might have low self-efficacy. Low self-efficacy might make them feel that their lives are out of control.
Orderliness: the quality of being organized and well-prepared. This facet is manifested when one enjoys making plans and following schedules and routines. Order-oriented people tend to keep things in order and organized and enjoy making and completing to-do lists. People with low levels of conscientiousness on the other hand tend to break rules and be disorganized.

conscientiousness_orderliness — Keeping things in order is one of the favorite things to do for order-oriented people

Dutifulness: Dutifulness allows one to have a strong sense of moral responsibility and contentment when following routines, regulations, or contracts. People with low levels of dutifulness view rules as being too confining and restrictive.hey tend to “play hard” before “work hard” and focus more on the present moments rather than long-term goals.
Self-Discipline: the ability an individual has to control and motivate himself or herself to stay on track and make progress in achieving the goals. People with high levels of self-discipline have strong willpower, plus an ability to be persistent on following through with tasks, even unpleasant ones. People who do not have self-discipline tend to fail to self-control and self-motivate to continue the work they are supposed to do.
Cautiousness: The tendency to think through all possible options and potential consequences of a situation before taking action. This also applies in communication where cautiousness means choosing carefully what to say and which words to use. Cautious people are thoughtful and need more time to make decisions. The opposite of being cautious is impulsive.
Achievement-striving: the tendency to work diligently to achieve success and become the top performer. People having this facet often set their goals high and would love to sacrifice the joyful presence for hard work to accomplish those goals. They are usually internally driven, ambitious, and strive for a better future. On the contrary, people who do not have this tend not to be driven by accomplishments and achievements.

Among the six facets, achievement-striving is one of the elements that is considered to be associated with career success. Since this facet is about setting ambitious goals and striving to achieve them, the downside is that the goals set could be too high or too risky. Also, high scorers could be considered narrow-minded, overly focused. They are too focused to be aware of other options or r alternatives.

The relationship between conscientiousness and demographic, biological and environmental factors.

The interactions children have with their parents or caregivers in the early development stage can affect their personality traits later in life. A research measured key personality traits from a handful of adults and recorded memories of their parents’ behaviors in their childhood found that children who were able to receive care and affections from their parents tend to score higher in conscientiousness.

affection baby baby girl beautiful — Children receiving affections from their parents tend to score higher in conscientiousness.

On another school of thought, other research suggested that a biological basis might also influence levels of conscientiousness. In Canada, 1996, a twin study by Kerry L. Jang and his research team shows that conscientiousness is possibly inherited through the genes of our parents.

Demographic factors can also contribute to the changes in conscientiousness levels. Research by Van den Akker suggested that conscientiousness tends to increase as we grow older and acquire relatively enough social experience.

The upsides of consciousness: lower likelihood of accidents and higher empathy

In a study called “The Five‐Factor Model, Conscientiousness, and Driving Accident Involvement” by Winfred Arthur Jr. and William G. Graziano in 1996, conscientious people are less likely to be involved in driving accidents than those with less conscientious personality traits. This is a direct result of conscientious people being careful, cautious, and self-discipline.

red and yellow hatchback axa crash tests — Conscientiousness individuals are less likely to be involved in car accidents

Conscientious people tend to be more empathetic towards other people, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Since they will not take action without pondering possible options and consequences, they are rarely in a situation of advertently offending or upsetting others by either their words or actions.

The downsides of consciousness: bureaucracy and “anal personality”

The consciousness paradox: higher consciousness in to poorer and less democratic societies

On the national scale, the research found that “countries with high average levels of conscientiousness tend to be poorer, less democratic, and have a lower life expectancy compared to their less conscientious counterparts”. Although some scholars suggest that between-country comparisons of conscientiousness are not valid and convincing enough to yield a result, this led them to think there is the existence of “conscientiousness paradox”. This can be simply interpreted that, when levels of conscientiousness go too high, instead of yielding a better result, for instance, more productive at work, the reality is entirely opposite.

Conscientiousness used to be defined as a pathological

According to Freud, “one group of his patients stood out from the rest: their discerning traits were cleanliness, conscientiousness, frugality, and stubbornness – that is, an anal personality.”

Fortunately, conscientiousness has a more appealing connotation these days. Conscientiousness is widely considered a positive trait that an employee or a worker should have for productivity, long-term contribution, and organizational loyalty. As a result, one might be tempted to assume that “the more, the better”.

High conscientiousness correlates to poorer workplace performance

Conscientiousness in practice is: “observing rules, focusing on the work, staying on schedule, keeping promises, and being reliable”. It is only productive if the motivation comes from inside, not from the external desire for social rewards.

“Hypocrisy is not genuine conscientiousness”

An over-conscientious employee can become compulsive perfectionists and workaholics. They might also be seen as being inflexible and non-adaptive. “Pedantry, a neurotic adherence to routine and perfectionism, are examples of extreme conscientiousness”. This can be seen as a manager insists on doing or organizing things in a particular way and it has to be perfect… according to his opinions! Or an employee takes more than half an hour just to fix minor visualization details of the report. Simply put, conscientiousness in doing the wrong things only results in bureaucracy and low productivity.

conscientiousness_lowproductivity — Too much conscientiousness correlates to poorer workplace performance

The above statement used to be a hypothesis yet has been empirically confirmed by a summary study, suggesting that the overly high levels of conscientiousness of an employee quickly turn into “detriment“ if he or she was assigned a simple task.

In short, overly conscientious people tend to spend unnecessary extra time making decisions, and “the ability to improvise and prioritize is lost”. These people also are prone to be exposed to “rapid burnout”, thus feeling faster than others, which lowers their work performance and productivity.

Conclusion: the importance of conscientiousness

Conscientiousness plays a vital role in both individual improvement and working organizations. Individuals can leverage the power of conscientiousness to cultivate and grow personal development on a daily basis. In a working environment, this personality trait helps to boost team performance and drive the team towards accomplishing the goals set. It is also one of the keystone ingredients in a productive employee and a successful manager.

Summary: Levels of conscientiousness and behaviors

LOW	HIGH	EXTREME
Big-picture oriented	Detail-oriented	Become a perfectionist
Prefer deadlines and schedules	Enjoy spontaneous situations
“Play harder” first	Hard-working	Become Workaholic
Stay relaxed, rarely take things seriously	Responsible when taking actions or speaking	Become Inflexible and non-adaptive
Break rules, disobey	Adhere to norms and rules	Being stubbornly compulsive

References:

The Big Five’s Openness: A closer look

Openness to experience, or openness, is one of the five dimensions of the Big Five Personality Traits. It is used to identify and measure individual differences in personality. Openness measures how open-minded, creative, and insightful an individual is. High scorers are likely to be receptive, imaginary, and adventurous. Low scorers, on the other hand, are resistant to changes, enjoy having a routine, and prefer conventional practices.

Sub traits of the openness domain

Each dimension of the Big Five Personality Traits comprises six different facets, or also known as sub traits. The sub traits of openness domain are:

Imagination: the ability to visualize new ideas and concepts in mind from both external and internal sources.
Artistic interests: an inclination to discover or to learn about new things related to art.
Adventurousness: the tendency to undertake things that involve risk and danger.
Emotionality: the quality or state of being emotional.
Intellect: the capacity to think, understand and acquire knowledge, especially complex issues.
Liberalism: an attitude of respecting and allowing different types of beliefs or behavior.

Similarity in openness creates relationship compatibility

Openness plays a pivotal role in forming new social relationships. Research shows that people tend to gravitate to romantic relationships and friendships with people who have roughly the same level of openness as they do. Although this effect is not strong compared to several other factors that bring people together, studies cannot deny its importance and benefits. Because openness involves the willingness to consider different schools of thoughts and a relatively high level of receptivity, high scorers in this trait are more open to tolerate differences in opinions, beliefs, and behaviors.

People who score high in openness have fewer conflicts with others and are less likely to be prejudiced. They often claim to have more satisfying relationships and stronger bonds with friends and family members. Besides, they are able to develop new sources of interest across various aspects. This comes as a direct result of the three following attributes combined: good relationships with others, open to new ideas, and a strong sense of curiosity. Low scorers, on the other hand, experience more difficulties voicing their opinions or accepting others’. They could become either insecure expressing themselves, or conservative with new beliefs and opinions.

In romantic couples, relationship compatibility in openness can be clearly illustrated. Individuals with a higher level of adventurousness and receptivity are more likely to find a partner with similar traits. Because open-minded people enjoy developing new interests in various aspects, they might meet their perfect half in the journey of exploration. However, it should be highlighted that openness is not the only factor that contributes to maintaining a long-term happy relationship. Instead, it acts as a foundational stepping-stone for the relationship.

bigfive_openness_similarity — High similarity in openness level would create better compatibility

High in openness correlates to high degrees of intelligence

There are several schools of thoughts about how the openness trait typically shows positive correlations with IQ test performance. Some suggested that it might reflect the expression of intelligence in personality, particularly in the openness domain^[1]. Others showed that openness correlates more strongly with verbal intelligence than spatial intelligence^[2]. Meanwhile, these two types of intelligence in others have been found to correlate roughly equally with openness while Bates and Shieles argued that openness enhances the effect of spatial intelligence on the acquisition of knowledge via verbal intelligence.

Besides, several conceptualizations of this trait have been further developed. One holds that openness is the expression of intelligence in personality. Another is that it reflects creativity. Third, and most recently, it has been conceptualized as a motivated cognitive flexibility that is linked to dopamine function.

In sum, these three conceptual models, plus the studies about the positive correlation between two types of intelligence (namely spatial intelligence and verbal intelligence) and openness, suggest that this personality trait should correlate to differing degrees with intelligence, creativity , and other measures of executive functioning.

Parent’s openness have strong influence on the child’s personality

For people who have children, openness is expected to have a strong association with parenting styles. Parents who score low in this trait tend to impose rules and expect obedience. They are considered strict parents who are not very welcome to new opinions and do not tolerate the child’s objections. These might influence a child’s long-term behavior and in different ways. If the child appears to be an argumentative and antagonistic person, there would be a great number of conflicts and arguments between parents and children occurring frequently. From another perspective, if the child agrees to conform to the rules and obey his or her parents, there are two possible situations. First, the child only does so if his or her self-benefits are under the parents’ control. Second, the child might inherit this trait from his or her parents and turn into a strict parent when having children.

A high level of openness has explicitly related to positive features of parenting. Studies found that openness associates with parental support and less negative control. Parents, especially mothers, are encouraged to be more supportive and engaging in various developing stages of the child. Instead of being manipulative and critical, parents with a high score in openness are more open and receptive to new opinions. These parents often provide the child with privacy to establish mutual respect and give each other space for self-reflection. Therefore, the child also feels more comfortable expressing his or her thoughts and more willing to embrace new ideas. When this child becomes a parent in the future, he or she is more likely to inherit this positive maternal trait from his or her parents and become an open-minded parent.

High scorers in openness tend to have higher aesthetic sensitivity

People scoring high in openness tend to be more open to the surrounding environment. Aesthetic experiences and surrounding neighborhoods become a joyful part of high scorers. Their levels of, what researchers call “aesthetic sensitivity” are higher, compared to those who rank low in the openness domain. High scorers enjoy sensory experiences including music, art, and splendid scenery. They also claim to have their feelings more absorbed and emotionally touched by these kinds of experiences.

On the contrary, less open-minded people seem to be less curious and emotionally responsive to the surrounding environment. They often do not pay attention to surrounding neighborhoods, thus having lower levels of aesthetic sensitivity. Besides, low scorers might feel uncomfortable or even struggling, when dealing with new changes in the surroundings. From their perspective, the surroundings are perfectly fine the way it is since their presence and there is no need for making or adding up new changes. Even when new changes have altered their surroundings, there is a strong urge inside of them wanting things to get back to the unchanged state.

One study looked at people’s reactions to viewing photographs of the space and the universe taken by the Hubble telescope. Participants with an originally high score in openness domain claim how profound and magnificent the pictures are. They also rate this experience special and emotionally touched. Meanwhile, low scorers in openness think nothing special in this experience, some even report to be boring and sterile.

These results show levels of openness positively correlate with aesthetic sensitivity. Those who rank high in this personality trait tend to have higher aesthetic sensitivity. This means they enjoy sensory experiences better and are more emotionally responsive to the surrounding neighborhoods. For low scorers, be prepared that everything will be changing to form a new order because this is an inevitable process to sustain life. So be comfortable, accepting, and adaptive to new changes and your levels of openness will improve.

People have lower openness as they become older

Differences in openness dimension have been observed across different groups by age, gender, and culture. Each category contains specific features that affect the variations of openness. A deep dive into each category will illustrate how openness varies and why it matters in our daily life.

The level of openness is likely to vary throughout one’s lifespan. This trait declines in both males and females over time, a change that indicates less interest and curiosity in new adventures, in forming new relationships, and in accepting new ideas. A survey of more than 10.000 people in the United States found that senior participants claimed to have lower levels of openness (which is also true for extraversion and neuroticism), compared to junior respondents. This shows openness and age establish an inverse proportion, which means we tend to be less open-minded as we grow older.

Recommendations for high scorers in openness

Openness allows one to be securely vulnerable and honest, which enables one to establish mutual trust and embrace emotional understanding. This helps to form a new structure of relationships and strengthen social bonds. People in this group are highly creative, adaptable, and adventurous.

So how can high scorers utilize their strengths to work and communicate better?

Besides creativity, one should also pay attention to practicality and feasibility
Get familiarized with factual concepts such as data and numbers
Concentrate energy in one topic or aspect at a time
High scorers may find it comfortable expressing themselves. Make sure to give your friends, co-workers, or family members space to express personally, emotionally, and mentally as well.

If you rank high in this domain, jobs that involve emotionality and creativity are more suitable for you:

Artist.

Content creator.
Graphic Designer.
Entrepreneur: if you are a creative person with a business mindset, plus a problem-solver, running a business might be appropriate for you.
Philosopher.
Lawyer.
Pilot.

Office jobs with nine-to-five working hours might not be an ideal option for high scorers

Recommendations for low scorers in openness

People belonging to this group prefer familiar and conventional practices and enjoy routine activities. They might have difficult times expressing their feelings and opinions. Similarly, they are not willing to consider or embrace new ideas from others.

So how can low scorers work and communicate in a better way?

Try to perceive and think a different angle
Understand others’ values and traditions from their points of view
Be more flexible and adaptive to changes and new ideas
Be comfortable and confident in self-expression

Jobs that generally require logical thinking or has a stable working environment are often suitable options for this group:

Banker
Financial Analyst
Auditor
Accountant
Contractor

If you are curious about your levels of openness, take the quiz and find out more.

References: