Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Is Personality Fixed? Personality Changes as Much as “Variable” Economic Factors and More Strongly Predicts Changes to Life Satisfaction

  • Published:
Social Indicators Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Personality is the strongest and most consistent cross-sectional predictor of high subjective well-being. Less predictive economic factors, such as higher income or improved job status, are often the focus of applied subjective well-being research due to a perception that they can change whereas personality cannot. As such there has been limited investigation into personality change and how such changes might bring about higher well-being. In a longitudinal analysis of 8625 individuals we examine Big Five personality measures at two time points to determine whether an individual’s personality changes and also the extent to which such changes in personality can predict changes in life satisfaction. We find that personality changes at least as much as economic factors and relates much more strongly to changes in life satisfaction. Our results therefore suggest that personality can change and that such change is important and meaningful. Our findings may help inform policy debate over how best to help individuals and nations improve their well-being.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Throughout this study we refer to both subjective well-being and life satisfaction. Our use of subjective well-being refers to a the general body of research that has attempted to understand an array of self-report measures of well-being that includes, for example, moment to moment feelings and emotions (e.g. positive and negative affect), mental and physical health and cognitive evaluations of various domains of one’s life. Our discussion of life satisfaction, however, refers to a specific component of subjective well-being that represents a cognitive evaluation of one’s life overall. Life satisfaction is the particular aspect of subjective well-being used in the subsequent analysis.

  2. A low R2 is fairly typical for these variables in large representative samples (e.g. Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Frijters 2004).

References

  • Ameriks, J., Caplin, A., & Leahy, J. (2003). Wealth accumulation and the propensity to plan. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118, 1007–1047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ameriks, J., Caplin, A., Leahy, J., & Tyler, T. (2007). Measuring self-control problems. American Economic Review, 97, 966–972.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anand, P., Hunter, G., Carter, I., Dowding, K., Guala, F., & Van Hees, M. (2009). The development of capability indicators. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 10, 125–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Argyle, M. (1999). Causes and correlates of happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Scwarz (Eds.), Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Strauss, J. P. (1993). Conscientiousness and performance of sales representatives - test of the mediating effects of goal-setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 715–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, D. S., Willingham, J. K., & Thayer, C. A. (2000). Affect and personality as predictors of conflict and closeness in young adults’ friendships. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 84–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. J. (2004). Well-being over time in Britain and the USA. Journal of Public Economics, 88, 1359–1386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borghans, L., Duckworth, A. L., Heckman, J. J., & ter Weel, B. (2008). The economics and psychology of personality traits. Journal of Human Resources, 43, 972–1059.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowles, S., Gintis, H., & Osborne, M. O. (2001). Incentive-enhancing preferences: Personality, behavior, and earnings. American Economic Review, 91, 155–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, C. J. (2010). Understanding fixed effects in human well-being. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31, 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2010). Money or mental health: The cost of alleviating psychological distress with monetary compensation versus psychological therapy. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 5, 509–516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011a). Personality and the marginal utility of income: Personality interacts with increases in household income to determine life satisfaction. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 78, 183–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011b). Personality prior to disability determines adaptation: Agreeable individuals recover lost life satisfaction faster and more completely. Psychological Science, 22, 1397–1402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., & Brown, G. D. A. (2010). The dark side of conscientiousness: Conscientious people experience greater drops in life satisfaction following unemployment. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 535–539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Reimers, S., Hsu, A., & Ahmetoglu, G. (2009). Who art thou? Personality predictors of artistic preferences in a large UK sample: The importance of openness. British Journal of Psychology, 100, 501–516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment, 7, 309–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being - happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 668–678.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1988). Personality in adulthood—a 6-year longitudinal-study of self-reports and spouse ratings on the Neo Personality-Inventory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 853–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (2006). Age changes in personality and their origins: Comment on Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer (2006). Psychological Bulletin, 132, 26–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 197–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being—the science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., & Lucas, R. E. (1999). Personality and subjective well-being. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Scwarz (Eds.), Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2005). Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect. Journal of Public Economics, 89, 997–1019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., & Frijters, P. (2004). How important is methodology for the estimates of the determinants of happiness? Economic Journal, 114, 641–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., & van Praag, B. M. S. (2002). The subjective costs of health losses due to chronic diseases. An alternative model for monetary appraisal. Health Economics, 11, 709–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55, 647–654.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frijters, P., Johnston, D. W., & Shields, M. A. (2011). Life satisfaction dynamics with quarterly life event data. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 113, 190–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fumham, A., Swami, V., Arteche, A., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2008). Cognitive ability, learning approaches and personality correlates of general knowledge. Educational Psychology, 28, 427–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality-traits. American Psychologist, 48, 26–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graziano, W. G., Habashi, M. M., Sheese, B. E., & Tobin, R. A. (2007). Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A person X situation perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 583–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graziano, W. G., & Tobin, R. M. (2009). Agreeableness. In M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle (Eds.), Handbook of Individual Differences in Social Behavior. New York: Guildford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Groves, M. O. (2005). How important is your personality? Labor market returns to personality for women in the US and UK. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26, 827–841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutierrez, J. L. G., Jimenez, B. M., Hernandez, E. G., & Puente, C. P. (2005). Personality and subjective well-being: Big Five correlates and demographic variables. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 1561–1569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Headey, B., & Wooden, M. (2004). The effects of wealth and income on subjective well-being and ill-being. Economic Record, 80, S24–S33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helson, R., Jones, C., & Kwan, V. S. Y. (2002). Personality change over 40 years of adulthood: Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of two longitudinal samples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 752–766.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, P. L., Turiano, N. A., Hurd, M. D., Mroczek, D. K., & Roberts, B. W. (2011). Conscientiousness and longevity: An examination of possible mediators. Health Psychology, 30, 536–541.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hogan, R. (2005). In defense of personality measurement: New wine for old whiners. Human Performance, 18, 331–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hogan, J., & Holland, B. (2003). Using theory to evaluate personality and job-performance relations: A socioanalytic perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 100–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, G. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 765–780.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. A., & Ilies, R. (2002). Relationship of personality to performance motivation: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 797–807.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanfer, R., Wanberg, C. R., & Kantrowitz, T. M. (2001). Job search and employment: A personality—motivational analysis and meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 837–855.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., Krull, J. L., & Del Gaiso, A. K. (2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 179–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lahey, B. B. (2009). Public health significance of neuroticism. American Psychologist, 64, 241–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Layard, R. (2006). Health policy: The case for psychological treatment centres. British Medical Journal, 332, 1030–1032.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Losoncz, I. (2009). Personality Traits in HILDA: Australian Social Policy No. 8.

  • Lucas, R. E., & Donnellan, M. B. (2011). Personality development across the life span: Longitudinal analyses with a national sample from Germany. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 847–861.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas, R. E., & Dyrenforth, P. S. (2006). Does the existence of social relationships matter for subjective well-being? In E. J. Finkel & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Self and Relationships: Connecting Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Processes. New York: NY: Guildford Press.

  • Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7, 186–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacLean, K. A., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2011). Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25, 1453–1461.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matzler, K., Renzl, B., Muller, J., Herting, S., & Mooradian, T. A. (2008). Personality traits and knowledge sharing. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29, 301–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1987). Validation of the 5-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 81–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1997). Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist, 52, 509–516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGregor, I., & Little, B. R. (1998). Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: On doing well and being yourself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 494–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, G., & Plug, E. J. S. (2006). Estimating the effect of personality on male and female earnings. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 60, 3–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neyer, F. J., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2001). Personality-relationship transaction in young adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1190–1204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nyhus, E. K., & Pons, E. (2005). The effects of personality on earnings. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26, 363–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Cleirigh, C., Ironson, G., Weiss, A., & Costa, P. T. (2007). Conscientiousness predicts disease progression (CD4 number and viral load) in people living with HIV. Health Psychology, 26, 473–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, D. B., Conner, M., Jones, F., McMillan, B., & Ferguson, E. (2009). Exploring the benefits of conscientiousness: An investigation of the role of daily stressors and health behaviors. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 37, 184–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oswald, A. J., & Powdthavee, N. (2008a). Death, happiness, and the calculation of compensatory damages. Journal of Legal Studies, 37, 217–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oswald, A. J., & Powdthavee, N. (2008b). Does happiness adapt? A longitudinal study of disability with implications for economists and judges. Journal of Public Economics, 92, 1061–1077.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pai, M., & Carr, D. (2010). Do personality traits moderate the effect of late-life spousal loss on pychological distress? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51, 183–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paunonen, S. V., & Ashton, M. C. (2001). Big Five factors and facets and the prediction of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 524–539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piedmont, R. L. (2001). Cracking the plaster cast: Big Five personality change during intensive outpatient counseling. Journal of Research in Personality, 35, 500–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plumper, T., & Troeger, V. E. (2007). Efficient estimation of time-invariant and rarely changing variables in finite sample panel analyses with unit fixed effects. Political Analysis, 15, 124–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powdthavee, N. (2008). Putting a price tag on friends, relatives, and neighbours: Using surveys of life satisfaction to value social relationships. Journal of Socio-Economics, 37, 1459–1480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Proudfoot, J. G., Corr, P. J., Guest, D. E., & Dunn, G. (2009). Cognitive-behavioural training to change attributional style improves employee well-being, job satisfaction, productivity, and turnover. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(2), 147–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. W. (1997). Plaster or plasticity: Are adult work experiences associated with personality change in women? Journal of Personality, 65, 205–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. W., & Bogg, T. (2004). A longitudinal study of the relationships between conscientiousness and the social-environmental factors and substance-use behaviors that influence health. Journal of Personality, 72, 325–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. W., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2003). Work experiences and personality development in young adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 582–593.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. W., Helson, R., & Klohnen, E. C. (2002). Personality development and growth in women across 30 years: Three perspectives. Journal of Personality, 70, 79–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006a). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006b). Personality traits change in adulthood: Reply to Costa and McCrae (2006). Psychological Bulletin, 132, 29–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. W., Wood, D., & Caspi, A. (Eds.). (2008). The development of personality traits in adulthood (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D., Love, G. D., Urry, H. L., Muller, D., Rosenkranz, M. A., Friedman, E. M., et al. (2006). Psychological well-being and ill-being: Do they have distinct or mirrored biological correlates? Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 75, 85–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, P., Shupp, R., Swope, K., & Mayer, J. (2008). Pre-commitment and personality: Behavioral explanations in ultimatum games. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 66, 597–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being - informative and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 513–523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N., Strack, F., & Mai, H. P. (1991). Assimilation and contrast effects in part-whole question sequences - a conversational logic analysis. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55, 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scollon, C. N., & Diener, E. (2006). Love, work, and changes in extraversion and neuroticism over time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 1152–1165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Semykina, A., & Linz, S. J. (2007). Gender differences in personality and earnings: Evidence from Russia. Journal of Economic Psychology, 28, 387–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srivastava, S., Angelo, K. M., & Vallereux, S. R. (2008). Extraversion and positive affect: A day reconstruction study of person-environment transactions. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1613–1618.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srivastava, S., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2003). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1041–1053.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J. (2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 138–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swope, K., Cadigan, J., Schmitt, P., & Shupp, R. (2008). Personality preferences in laboratory economics experiments. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 37, 998–1009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Humrichouse, J. (2006). Personality development in emerging adulthood: Integrating evidence from self-ratings and spouse ratings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 959–974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winkelmann, L., & Winkelmann, R. (2008). Personality, work, and satisfaction: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 3, 266–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., & Maltby, J. (2008). Gratitude uniquely predicts satisfaction with life: Incremental validity above the domains and facets of the five factor model. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 49–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Worthington, R. L., & Whittaker, T. A. (2006). Scale development research—A content analysis and recommendations for best practices. Counseling Psychologist, 34, 806–838.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The Economic and Social Research Council (PTA-026-27-2665) provided research support. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either FaHCSIA or the Melbourne Institute.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Christopher J. Boyce & Alex M. Wood

  2. London School of Economics, London, UK

    Nattavudh Powdthavee

  3. The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Nattavudh Powdthavee

Authors
  1. Christopher J. Boyce
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alex M. Wood
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nattavudh Powdthavee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher J. Boyce.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Boyce, C.J., Wood, A.M. & Powdthavee, N. Is Personality Fixed? Personality Changes as Much as “Variable” Economic Factors and More Strongly Predicts Changes to Life Satisfaction. Soc Indic Res 111, 287–305 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0006-z

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0006-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation