Your personality changes more across your life than you think, according to new study. Really!

Junk science or junk science journalism or both? It has been well known for ages that personality traits change over lifetime of an adult (not every adult) e.g. due to life experiences.

Are people so ignorant as claimed by this study (based on only 887 individuals)? I seriously doubt it. I bet the use of the "nationally representative US-sample" is seriously flawed when it comes to lifetime changes in Big Five personality traits.

"... the Big Five personality traits—extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness—as some of the most stable characteristics of a person's life. ... 

A follow-up analysis of data from eight large-scale longitudinal data sets involving 166,971 individuals across the United States, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands told a different story. It revealed that the Big Five traits changed just as much as other life factors, both year to year and over a lifetime. For instance, conscientiousness, which is the tendency to be careful, diligent and responsible, doesn't remain the same when someone is a teenager compared with when they are 90 [???]. ..."

From the abstract:

"Historically, personality traits have been viewed as highly stable and “set like plaster” once people reach adulthood. Although decades of research have refuted this claim, it remains unclear how much personality traits actually change compared to other aspects of life and whether these relative change patterns align with public beliefs.

Across two studies, we investigated these questions using a multimethod, comparative approach with the Big Five traits and more than 20 variables from several life domains.

First, using a nationally representative US-sample (n = 887), we found that lay people [???] rated the Big Five traits as having less change across the lifespan than nearly all other characteristics.

Second, analyses using eight large-scale longitudinal datasets from the US, Germany, Australia, and Netherlands (n = 166,971) revealed that standardized yearly and lifespan mean-level changes in the Big Five were comparable to, and often greater than, changes in variables like life satisfaction, subjective health, income, and self-esteem.

Together, these results uncover widespread misconceptions of stability that diverge from empirical evidence [???] and are seemingly unique to personality traits. We discuss potential implications of these findings for how people view human potential for change, improvement, and adaptation."

Your personality changes more across your life than you think, according to new study

Personality traits are less stable than people think (open access, but in press)

How Genes Shape Personality Traits: New Links Are Discovered

Amazing stuff!

What is not in your genes? Self-reported assessments?

".... Using data from the Million Veteran Program, researchers performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify genetic variations, called “loci,” associated with each of the “Big Five” personality traits: extraversion, openness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. The researchers then combined these data with previous GWAS to perform a meta-analysis with almost 700,000 individuals, marking the largest GWAS for personality traits to date. ...

The Big Five personality traits are a scientifically based measure of personality that can be studied using self-reported assessments that indicate whether people score high or low in each of the five traits. ...

By comparing personality assessment results with the analysis of variations in the participants’ DNA, Levey and his team found 62 new loci associated with neuroticism. They also identified loci for agreeableness for the first time. By combining their results with previously published data, they performed a meta-analysis to identify over 200 genetic loci across the five personality traits. ..."

From the abstract:

"Personality is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors and is associated with other psychiatric traits such as anxiety and depression. The ‘big five’ personality traits, which include neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness, are a widely accepted and influential framework for understanding and describing human personality. Of the big five personality traits, neuroticism has most often been the focus of genetic studies and is linked to various mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. Our knowledge of the genetic architecture of the other four personality traits is more limited. Here, utilizing the Million Veteran Program cohort, we conducted a genome-wide association study in individuals of European and African ancestry. Adding other published data, we performed genome-wide association study meta-analysis for each of the five personality traits with sample sizes ranging from 237,390 to 682,688. We identified 208, 14, 3, 2 and 7 independent genome-wide significant loci associated with neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness, respectively. These findings represent 62 novel loci for neuroticism, as well as the first genome-wide significant loci discovered for agreeableness. Gene-based association testing revealed 254 genes showing significant association with at least one of the five personality traits. Transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide analysis identified altered expression of genes and proteins such as CRHR1, SLC12A5, MAPT and STX4. Pathway enrichment and drug perturbation analyses identified complex biology underlying human personality traits. We also studied the inter-relationship of personality traits with 1,437 other traits in a phenome-wide genetic correlation analysis, identifying new associations. Mendelian randomization showed positive bidirectional effects between neuroticism and depression and anxiety, while a negative bidirectional effect was observed for agreeableness and these psychiatric traits. This study improves our comprehensive understanding of the genetic architecture underlying personality traits and their relationship to other complex human traits."

How Genes Shape Personality Traits: New Links Are Discovered < Yale School of Medicine

A genome-wide investigation into the underlying genetic architecture of personality traits and overlap with psychopathology (open access)

Fig. 1: Personality GWAS meta-analysis and genetic correlations among the five personality traits.

Can AI Tell Whether You Will Be A Future Killer?

Posted: 9/3/2018

Just read this article: This new AI can track 200 eye movements to determine your personality traits (Science paper is here)

To quote (emphasis added):

1. “Using over 200 physical behaviours, such as the frequency with which subjects blinked, the researchers established connections between eye movements and personality traits.”
2. “Using a state-of-the-art machine learning method and a rich set of features encoding different eye movement characteristics, we were able to reliably predict four of the Big Five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness) as well as perceptual curiosity only from eye movements.”
3. “Our findings demonstrate a considerable influence of personality on everyday eye movement control, thereby complementing earlier studies in laboratory settings. ”
4. “Studies reporting relationships between personality traits and eye movements suggest that people with similar traits tend to move their eyes in similar ways.”

Unfortunately, the sample population with only 42 participants is very small.

To take this a few steps further, perhaps as early as within a few years we would possibly be able if a person has a propensity to become a killer if not treated. Thus children could be screened early on etc.

If this is no or little hype, then mind reading etc. is achievable within a generation.