These Are The Four Big Personality Types, According To Science Time

These Are the Four Big Personality Types,
According to Science
By JAMIE DUCHARME September 18, 2018
TIME
For more, visit TIME Health.
Health
Personality tests are beloved by high school guidance counselors and self-
help book authors — but less so by many scientists. There’s controversy
among them over whether clear-cut personality types exist at all.
A large new study published in Nature Human Behavior, however, provides

evidence for the existence of at least four personality types: average,
reserved, self-centered and role model. Each one is based on the extent to
which people display five different major character traits, including
neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
“It seemed like personality traits were very well-accepted and established in
psychometrics, but personality types were not,” says study co-author Luis
Amaral, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern
University. “I just wondered, could it be that the reason why people haven’t
been able to establish personality types was there wasn’t enough data?”
To answer this question, Amaral and postdoctoral fellow Martin Gerlach

sifted through 1.5 million responses to four different personality surveys
from quiz-takers of all ages from around the world. The pair used an
algorithm to sort the responses into different clusters and uncovered four
http://time.com/5398396/personality-types/?utm_source=tim…P%22%3a%22%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22EUR%22%7d 19/09/2018, 14O23

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personality types that appeared across all four survey datasets with
disproportionate frequency.
Most people, Gerlach says, will track closest to the average personality type,
which is fairly agreeable and conscientious, quite extraverted and neurotic
but not terribly open. Meanwhile, self-centered types score below-average on
openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, but high on extraversion.
Reserved individuals are fairly stable in all domains except for openness and
neuroticism, in which they’re relatively low. Role models, finally, have high
levels of extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness, and comparably
low levels of neuroticism.
These clusters kept showing up again and again. Northwestern psychology

professor William Revelle, a co-author on the paper and a long-time doubter
of personality types, was intrigued enough by the results to change his mind.
“There are higher densities than you would expect by chance, and that’s what
these guys convinced me of,” Revelle says.
He likens the result to looking at a population map of the United States.

While people live across the country, it’s easy to spot high-density areas like
New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, which are each home to far more
people than, say, Cleveland or Tallahassee.
But just as plenty of people in the U.S. don’t live in New York City, Los
Angeles or Chicago, some people won’t fit neatly into one of the four
personality types; Revelle says they’re just trait groupings that describe an
above-average number of people. Some people may fit one perfectly, while
others are more loosely associated with one of the camps. (“If you’re in D.C.,
you’re closer to New York than you are to Chicago,” Revelle says.) Some
people may not fit into any of them.

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In fact, Gerlach says it’s not possible to say exactly how many people fit
squarely within each category, because drawing hard boundaries around
them is both difficult and somewhat arbitrary. Plus, people’s traits may
change as they age. A disproportionate number of young people, for example,
fit into the self-centered category, while more older people and women fall
into the role model group.
“People are developing,” Amaral says. “People keep getting better integrated
into society, acquiring traits that are more sociable over age.”
While the researchers’ findings add a dose of science to the study of

personality, they say more research will be required to turn the results into
anything that will be useful to regular people, like personality quizzes that
could be used by employers, mental health professionals or even dating
services. Interested people can contribute to ongoing research by taking a
personality quiz online, after which they’ll receive trait feedback from the
researchers — which Revelle says may be even more useful than knowing
your personality type.
“Knowing how far north or how far east you live is useful,” he says. “More
useful than saying what city you live in.”
The Northwestern team’s research isn’t the only recent addition to the
personality field. Just last month, researchers from North Carolina State
University developed a new personality test based on people’s rapid reactions
to questions about the same five big personality traits. They’ve even
developed a service, called PerSight Assessments, that they say can be used
by employers who are looking to learn more about new hires.

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These Are the Four Big Personality Types,

By JAMIE DUCHARME September 18, 2018

A large new study published in Nature Human Behavior, however, provides

To answer this question, Amaral and postdoctoral fellow Martin Gerlach

http://time.com/5398396/personality-types/?utm_source=tim…P%22%3a%22%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22EUR%22%7d 19/09/2018, 14O23

These clusters kept showing up again and again. Northwestern psychology

He likens the result to looking at a population map of the United States.

http://time.com/5398396/personality-types/?utm_source=tim…P%22%3a%22%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22EUR%22%7d 19/09/2018, 14O23

While the researchers’ findings add a dose of science to the study of

http://time.com/5398396/personality-types/?utm_source=tim…P%22%3a%22%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22EUR%22%7d 19/09/2018, 14O23

There is enough potassium in the A kiss is healthier than a handshake,

http://time.com/5398396/personality-types/?utm_source=tim…P%22%3a%22%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22EUR%22%7d 19/09/2018, 14O23

http://time.com/5398396/personality-types/?utm_source=tim…P%22%3a%22%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22EUR%22%7d 19/09/2018, 14O23

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