Gene Flow by Selective Emigration as a Possible Cause for Personality Differences between Small Islands and Mainland Populations

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Camperio Ciani ◽  
Claudio Capiluppi

Whether personality differences exist between populations is a controversial question. Even though such differences can be measured, it is still not clear whether they are due to individual phenotypic responses to the environment or whether they have a genetic influence. In a population survey we compared the personality traits of inhabitants of an Italian archipelago (the three Egadi islands; N = 622) with those of the closest mainland population (Trapani area; N = 106) and we found that personality differences between small populations can be detected. Islanders scored significantly lower on the personality traits of openness to experience and extraversion and higher on conscientiousness. We suggest that these personality trait differences could be an adaptive response to a confined socio–environmental niche, genetically produced by a strong, non–random gene flow in the last 20–25 generations, rather than the flexible response of islanders to environmental variables. To test this hypothesis, we compared subsets of the islander population classified by ancestry, birthplace, immigration and emigration and found that differences in extraversion can be accounted for by gene flow, while openness to experience and conscientiousness can also be accounted for by some gene–environment interactions. We propose a Personality Gene Flow hypothesis suggesting that, in small isolated communities, whenever there is strong, non–random emigration, paired with weak and random immigration, we can expect rapid genetic personality change within the population. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea S. Camperio Ciani ◽  
Claudio Capiluppi ◽  
Antonio Veronese ◽  
Giuseppe Sartori

Whether differences in personality among populations really exist and, if so, whether they are only due to cultural and linguistic differences or have a genetically selected adaptive value, is a controversial issue. In this research, we compared three Italian populations living on three small archipelagos in the Tyrrhenian Sea (n = 993), with their corresponding neighbouring mainlanders (n = 598), i.e. sharing the same geographical origin, culture and language. We used an adjective‐based Big Five questionnaire in order to measure personality traits in four categories of individuals for each archipelago/mainland population: (1) original islanders; (2) non‐original islanders; (3) mainlanders and (4) immigrants to the islands. We further analysed original and non‐original islanders who had or had not emigrated from the islands. We found that islanders had different personality traits from mainlanders, the former being more conscientious and emotionally stable and less extraverted and open to experience. We also found that the subgroup of islanders whose ancestors had inhabited their island for about 20 generations in isolation (original islanders, n = 624) were less extraverted and open to experience than immigrants (n = 193). In contrast, immigrants retained the typical personality profile of the mainland populations. Lastly, emigrants from the islands (n = 209) were significantly more extraverted and open to experience than original and non‐original islanders who had never left their island (n = 741). We hypothesise that population differences in extraversion and openness to experience are more probably related to genetic differences which evolved rapidly, presumably through an active gene flow produced by selective emigration from the islands. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Sander ◽  
Paul Schumann ◽  
David Richter ◽  
Jule Specht

Repeated experiences and activities drive personality development. Leisure activities are among the daily routines that may elicit personality change. Yet despite the important role they play in daily life, little is known about their prospective effects on personality traits and vice versa. The objective of this study was to examine the extent to which within-person changes in leisure activities lead to prospective changes in personality traits, and whether changes in personality elicit prospective changes in leisure activities. We applied random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) to four waves of 13-year longitudinal data (2005−2017) from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the sample as a whole (N = 55,790) and for three specific age groups (young, middle-aged, and older adults). We examined between-person associations and within-person auto-regressive effects, correlated change and cross-lagged effects for Big Five personality traits (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) with self-reported frequency of leisure activities (i.e., physical activities, socializing, volunteering, political activity, artistic and musical activity, going out) and overall participation in leisure activities. At the between-person level, leisure activities and overall participation were most strongly associated with openness to experience. At the within-person level, we found reciprocal effects of extraversion only with overall participation in leisure activities and socializing. We found unidirectional within-person cross-lagged effects between leisure activities and personality traits and vice versa. Some effects were age-group-specific only. These findings suggest that leisure activities that are associated with certain traits at the between-person level are not necessarily those that trigger change in the respective personality trait. We discuss our findings based on the TESSERA framework for personality development. We conclude that the specificity of an experience or behavior and its corresponding trait is essential for personality development and should be subjected to further research.


2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie von Stumm

Intelligence-as-knowledge in adulthood is influenced by individual differences in intelligence-as-process (i.e., fluid intelligence) and in personality traits that determine when, where, and how people invest their intelligence over time. Here, the relationship between two investment traits (i.e., Openness to Experience and Need for Cognition), intelligence-as-process and intelligence-as-knowledge, as assessed by a battery of crystallized intelligence tests and a new knowledge measure, was examined. The results showed that (1) both investment traits were positively associated with intelligence-as-knowledge; (2) this effect was stronger for Openness to Experience than for Need for Cognition; and (3) associations between investment and intelligence-as-knowledge reduced when adjusting for intelligence-as-process but remained mostly significant.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn

Personal concerns about climate change and the environment are a powerful motivator of sustainable behavior. People’s level of concern varies as a function of a variety of social and individual factors. Using data from 58,748 participants from a nationally representative German sample, we tested preregistered hypotheses about factors that impact concerns about the environment over time. We found that environmental concerns increased modestly from 2009-2017 in the German population. However, individuals in middle adulthood tended to be more concerned and showed more consistent increases in concern over time than younger or older people. Consistent with previous research, Big Five personality traits were correlated with environmental concerns. We present novel evidence that increases in concern were related to increases in the personality traits neuroticism and openness to experience. Indeed, changes in openness explained roughly 50% of the variance in changes in environmental concerns. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual level factors associated with changes in environmental concerns over time, towards the promotion of more sustainable behavior at the individual level.


1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Meins ◽  
Andrea Frey ◽  
Rüdiger Thiesemann

The purpose of this study was to examine whether premorbid personality traits predispose to noncognitive symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Munich Personality Test was used to evaluate caregivers' perception of personality prior to symptom onset in 56 outpatients with probable AD. Caregivers also completed the “mood” and “disturbed behavior” scales of the Nurses' Observation Scale for Geriatric Patients. A neuropsychiatrist rated depressive symptoms on the Cornell Scale for Depression and the occurrence of personality change in four domains according to ICD-10. Under statistical control of confounding variables, results showed a moderate association between (high) premorbid neuroticism, subsequent troublesome behavior, and personality change, on the one hand, and (low) frustration tolerance and depression, on the other. Premorbid personality traits may indeed predispose to subsequent noncognitive symptoms in AD.


Author(s):  
Danny Osborne ◽  
Nicole Satherley ◽  
Chris G. Sibley

Research since the 1990s reveals that openness to experience—a personality trait that captures interest in novelty, creativity, unconventionalism, and open-mindedness—correlates negatively with political conservatism. This chapter summarizes this vast literature by meta-analyzing 232 unique samples (N = 575,691) that examine the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and conservatism. The results reveal that the negative relationship between openness to experience and conservatism (r = −.145) is nearly twice as big as the next strongest correlation between personality and ideology (namely, conscientiousness and conservatism; r = .076). The associations between personality traits and conservatism were, however, substantively larger in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) countries than in non-WEIRD countries. The chapter concludes by reviewing recent longitudinal work demonstrating that openness to experience and conservatism are non-causally related. Collectively, the chapter shows that openness to experience is by far the strongest (negative) correlate of conservatism but that there is little evidence that this association is causal.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi Thi Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Duong Tuan Nguyen ◽  
Hang Thu Nguyen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of entrepreneurs’ personality traits on firm innovation performance through the mediation role of entrepreneurs’ innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach The data consist of 2,574 firms from a survey of small and medium-scale manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, a developing and transitioning economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy. The estimation results based on the structural equation model was applied to analyze the data. Findings The results indicate that an entrepreneur’s innovativeness is positively associated with his extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience but negatively accompanied with his neuroticism. Besides, the three traits – openness to experience, conscientiousness and extraversion have positive indirect effects, while neuroticism has a negative indirect effect on technological improvement and new technology adoption. However, the effects of agreeableness on entrepreneurial innovativeness and firm innovation performance are insignificant. In addition, the diverse backgrounds of the entrepreneur such as education and ethnics are also found to influence his innovativeness and to have indirect effects on firm innovation performance. Originality/value This study may contribute to the immature literature on the entrepreneurial process within SMEs by presenting empirical evidence on the relationship between entrepreneurial personality traits and firm innovation with a large sample of SMEs in Vietnam, an emerging economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy.


Author(s):  
Pilar Sanjuan ◽  
David Guillen ◽  
Ana María Pérez-García

 Abstract: Personality traits and psychological resources as predictors of emotional well-being in adolescents with and without training in bullfighting schools. The main objective of this study was to analyse how being in training in bullfighting schools can affect the emotional well-being (EW), the personality and the psychological resources of adolescents. The sample consisted of 196 boys, 95 from bullfighting school group (BSG) and 101 from a control group (CG). The BSG, in relation to CG, scored significantly more on conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience, as well as on self-efficacy, problem-solving (PSC) and social support coping (SSC), and EW. The EW was predicted by feeling self-efficacy and not using avoidance coping, and in the CG by being extraverted, showing conscientiousness, being low in neuroticism, feeling self-efficacy and using PSC and SSC. It discusses the psychological adaptive profile of adolescents in the BSG and the need to promote well-being in adolescence through the promotion of self-efficacy and active coping.Resumen: El objetivo principal de este estudio fue analizar cómo la formación en escuelas de tauromaquia puede afectar al bienestar emocional (BE), la personalidad y los recursos psicológicos de los adolescentes. Participaron 196 chicos, 95 del grupo de escuelas taurinas (GET) y 101 del grupo control (GC). El GET, en relación con el GC, puntuaba significativamente más en tesón, afabilidad y apertura, así como en autoeficacia, afrontamiento de solución de problemas (ASP) y basado en los demás (AD), y BE. El BE se predecía en el GET por sentirse eficaz y no usar el afrontamiento de evitación, y en el GC por ser extravertido, mostrar tesón, ser bajo en neuroticismo, sentirse eficaz y emplear el ASP y AD. Se discute sobre el perfil psicológico adaptativo que presentan los adolescentes del GET y la necesidad de promover el bienestar en la adolescencia mediante el fomento de la autoeficacia y el afrontamiento activo.


Author(s):  
Pérez-Fuentes ◽  
Molero Jurado ◽  
Gázquez Linares ◽  
Oropesa Ruiz ◽  
Simón Márquez ◽  
...  

Background: Although self-expressive creativity is related to cyberbullying, it can also reinforce strengths that contribute to positive adolescent development. Our study concentrated on the relationships between personality traits and self-expressive creativity in the digital domain in an adolescent population. For this, we analyzed the effect of self-esteem and emotional intelligence as assets for positive development related to personality traits and self-expressive creativity. Methods: The study population included a total of 742 adolescents that were high-school students in the province of Almería, Spain. The following instruments were used: Big Five Inventory (BFI) to evaluate the five broad personality factors, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), Expression, Management, and Emotion Recognition Evaluation Scale (TMMS-24), and the Creative Behavior Questionnaire: Digital (CBQD). Results: The cluster analysis revealed the existence of two profiles of adolescents based on their personality traits. The analysis showed that the group with the highest levels of extraversion and openness to experience and lowest levels of neuroticism were those who showed the highest scores in self-esteem, clarity, and emotional repair, as well as in self-expressive creativity. Higher scores in neuroticism and lower scores in extraversion and openness to experience showed a direct negative effect on self-expressive creativity and indirect effect through self-esteem and emotional attention, which acted as mediators in series. Conclusions: To counteract certain characteristics that increase adolescents’ vulnerability to social network bullying, a plan must be developed for adequate positive use of the Internet from a creative model that enables digital self-expression for acquiring identity and self-efficacy through the positive influence of peers, which promotes feelings of empowerment and self-affirmation through constructive tasks that reinforce self-esteem and emotional intelligence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Sara Filipiak ◽  
Beata Łubianka

The aim of the present study was to analyse the personality traits and value preferences of students from integrated and non-integrated classes. Sixty-nine primary school sixth graders were surveyed (M = 12.45; SD = .58). The group of students attending integrated classes included 38 individuals. The remaining 31 students attended non-integrated classrooms. Personality traits were measured using the Picture-Based Personality Survey for Children (PBPS-C ) and value preferences were determined on the basis of the Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C). The results showed that youth from the integrated classes did not differ significantly from their peers from the non-integrated classes in terms of personality traits. In case of values, students from the non-integrated classes cherished values of Universalism more than their peers from the integrated classes. Correlation analyses showed that the patterns of relations between personality traits and preferred values were partially different for the two groups. Nevertheless, a similar pattern of relations was observed in both groups between Openness to Experience and values in the categories of Self-direction and Universalism.


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