Rammstedt, Beatrice and Roth, Matthias and Roemer, Lena and Lechner, Clemens M., Revisiting the Links between Personality and Cognitive Ability: A Generalization Study in 26 Countries.
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5239330 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5239330
What role does personality play in shaping our thinking skills? A new study by researchers from GESIS and Michigan State University has found that the link between personality traits and cognitive ability is surprisingly weak – and highly variable across 26 countries.
Based on representative data from over 137,000 adults, the study confirms that traits like Openness and Emotional Stability are modestly associated with higher cognitive ability. However, these associations shrink considerably when controlling for sociodemographic factors such as education, gender, or migration background.
The findings challenge the idea of a universal personality–intelligence link and highlight the importance of context. In some countries, personality explains up to 10% of cognitive differences, in others just 1%.