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The Big Five personality traits and earnings: A meta-analysis

Giammarco Alderotti, Chiara Rapallini and Silvio Traverso

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2023, vol. 94, issue C

Abstract: The past two decades have witnessed increased interest in the relationship between personality and labor market outcomes, as well as the emergence of the Five-Factor Model as the key reference framework for the study of personality. In this paper, we provide the first meta-analytical review of the empirical literature on the association between personal earnings and the Big Five personality traits. The analysis combines the results of 62 peer-reviewed articles published from 2001–2020, from which we retrieved 896 partial effect sizes. Overall, the primary literature provides robust support for a positive association between personal earnings and the traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion, while simultaneously revealing a negative and significant association between earnings and the traits of Agreeableness and Neuroticism. We find no evidence of a substantial publication bias. Meta-regression estimates suggest that Openness and Conscientiousness are positively associated with earnings even when primary researchers control for individual cognitive abilities and educational attainments. Similarly, the studies that include labor market control variables exhibit weaker associations between earnings and Extraversion and Agreeableness. The results of the primary studies seem unaffected by the time at which the Big Five are measured, as well as by the scale and number of inventory items. Meta-regression estimates suggest that the results of the primary literature are not stable across cultures and gender, and that the ranking and academic field of the journal matter.

Keywords: Big five personality traits; Earnings; Meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Big Five Personality Traits and Earnings: A Meta-Analysis (2022) Downloads
Working Paper: The Big Five Personality Traits and Earnings: A Meta-Analysis (2021) Downloads
Working Paper: The Big Five Personality Traits and Earnings: A Meta-Analysis (2021) Downloads
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:94:y:2023:i:c:s0167487022000812

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2022.102570

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