Openness/Intellect: A Unique Trait Requires Unique Considerations

Abstract

Openness/intellect often stands apart from the other Big Few personality traits. Here, we interrogate some of the many qualities that make openness/intellect unique. First, we describe this trait’s unique history, highlighting unresolved controversies critical to its modern interpretation. Second, we identify three major research questions where openness/intellect is unique among the Big Few: trait associations with outcomes are often moderated, it is often irrelevant to mental health, and it is the rarest target of volitional change; we develop theories to confirm and explain these phenomena. Third, we synthesize etic (imported) and emic (local) cross-cultural evidence to argue that openness/intellect is the least cross-culturally portable Big Few trait. We hypothesize that variation in individualism, looseness, and complexity modify its relevance and coherence around a potentially universal core. Throughout, we argue that understanding these unique qualities is required to cohesively interpret past openness/intellect findings and expand future research on this trait.

Public Abstract

Most researchers study personality using five or six broad traits. One of these traits is called openness/intellect, which describes people who are imaginative, knowledgeable, nontraditional, creative, and often unusual. Here, we explore how the trait itself is often unique compared to other broad personality traits. For example, most people want to change their personality, but they rarely want to change in openness/intellect. And, although openness/intellect is important for people living in North America and Europe, in other cultures it seems less relevant. In some cultures, its specific components don’t go together: nontraditional people aren’t more imaginative. In some languages, words like “creative” don’t exist. Even so, some indicators of openness/intellect, like wisdom and experiencing goosebumps from music, are found among humans everywhere. We develop theories to explain these unique qualities of openness/intellect; testing them will allow us to further understand how, why, and among whom individual differences in this trait are important.