What is it about?

Cognitive ability and personality are fundamental domains of human psychology. Despite a century of vast research, most ability–personality relations were unclear. Researchers mostly consider them to be unrelated. This study offers an unprecedented look into how personality and intelligence intertwine. It presents a comprehensive examination of the relations between personality traits and cognitive abilities by synthesizing data from thousands of studies and millions of people. We confirmed not just the expected ties, such as the link between openness and intelligence, but also uncovered less obvious links involving neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness.

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Why is it important?

Personality traits and cognitive abilities are pillars of individuality. Focusing solely on cognitive abilities or personality limits research, understanding, and applications. Quantifying their connections is important because if cognitive abilities (i.e., what an individual is cognitively capable of) and personality traits (i.e., what an individual typically does) are substantially related, then work omitting variables from one of these domains while examining the other would yield biased results. Scientific theories, research studies, and real-world interventions that are based on assumed independence would be deficient and misleading. Mapping the architecture of personality-intelligence relations unlocks not only scientific insights and practical applications but also reveals deep-rooted patterns in human diversity. By giving scientists, educators, and policymakers a high-resolution map of personality- abilities relations, this study invites us to think more holistically about human potential.

Perspectives

This article represents more than 13 years of effort and the contributions of thousands of researchers, experts, translators, librarians, practitioners, scholars, advisors, governments, companies, consultancies, and other organizations. Remarkably, this extensive undertaking was carried out without the aid of any formal research funding - a testament to the generosity, commitment, and shared vision of all those involved. The result is a vivid understanding of personality-intelligence connections based on meta-analyses pooling data from millions of people across more than 50 countries and a panoply of demographic groups. What began as an ambition to study the complete intersection of personality and intelligence blossomed into a life-consuming endeavor that led through archives, letter-writing campaigns, disciplines, and manuscript drafts. Reflecting on our journey, we recognize this singular, in-depth exploration has yielded penetrating insights that couldn’t have been achieved by diversifying our energy across multiple smaller projects. While the completion of this colossal venture brings gratification, we find ourselves entranced by the majestic diversity and profound patterns in its prodigious findings.

Kevin Stanek
University of Minnesota Twin Cities

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This page is a summary of: Meta-analytic relations between personality and cognitive ability, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2212794120.
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