Abstract
The Thurstone Verbal Fluency Test, Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test, and NEO-FFI personality test were administered to 182 university participants (126 female, 56 male). The men scored higher than the women on the spatial test, and the women scored higher than the men for the verbal fluency test, as reported by others. Women reported more extraversion and agreeableness than men. Extraversion was correlated with verbal fluency for both sexes. For the men, verbal fluency was also positively associated with agreeableness, and for the women, verbal fluency was associated with openness and conscientiousness. No relationships between personality and spatial ability were found. Thus, the relationships between cognitive variables and personality factors differed between the sexes. These findings are discussed in terms of the common frontal neural substrate of verbal fluency and these aspects of personality, as well as the inherently social nature of language as a communication tool.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Jessica Hafetz Mirman for help with data collection, and Elena Levy for literature research.
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Burton, L.A., Henninger, D. Sex Differences in Relationships between Verbal Fluency and Personality. Curr Psychol 32, 168–174 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-013-9167-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-013-9167-4