Birth order, according to conventional wisdom, molds personality: Firstborn children, secure with their place in the family and expected to be the mature ones, grow up to be intellectual, responsible and conformist. Younger siblings work harder to get their parents’ attention, take more risks and become creative rebels. That’s the More
Links between personality traits and life outcomes found in previous research are largely reproducible, according to findings from a large-scale replication project. More
The dark side of human personality has long fascinated the public and psychologists alike. Research has linked unpleasant traits such as selfishness and a lack of empathy to a higher income and better odds of landing a date. But critics are starting to push back. In a new study, scientists More
Some people can walk into a room and instantly put everyone at ease. Others seem to make teeth clench and eyes roll no matter what they do. A small body of psychology research supports the idea that the way a person tends to make others feel is a consistent and More
It’s easy to see how someone with low levels of conscientiousness or extraversion might struggle in the workplace, but people with extremely high levels of these traits can face hurdles of their own too. More
What’s your personality, and what can it tell you about your true self? Those questions have launched a thousand online personality quizzes. But you can do better than those specious — yet irresistible — quizzes. You can take a personality quiz backed by science. Meet the Big Five, the way More
