Improving the reliability and validity of data on Big Five personality traits in developing countries

An Huang () and Paulo Santos ()
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An Huang: Economics, Monash University
Paulo Santos: Economics, Monash University

No 2022-04, Monash Economics Working Papers from Monash University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Recent research argues that personality data collected in developing countries may fail to measure the intended personality traits. We quantify the importance of three potential drivers of such failure (acquiescence response, social desirability response, and enumerator effects) in terms of their influence on psychometric properties and the predictive power of data on the Big Five personality traits. Our results suggest that both the reliability and validity of survey data on the Big Five can be improved by correcting for acquiescence bias, and that the performance of this correction can be greatly increased through the use of balanced personality inventories. Correcting for social desirability response and enumerator effects matters when estimating the effect of personality traits on economic outcomes (but not when capturing personality structure).

Keywords: balanced questionnaire; personality traits; acquiescence bias; social desirability bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B49 C83 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-03
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