Research reveals four distinct personality clusters

Have you taken a personality test online or at your workplace? Unfortunately, researchers often question their accuracy; but one new study may have opened the way to scientific, solid personality assessments.

A new study finds four personality clusters and explains what they are.

Personality tests are popular with people and companies alike.

This is because each and every one of us is interested in "cracking the code" of who we truly are, and how we fit into the world.

However, experts question and criticize even the most widely cited of personality tests — such as the myers-briggs assessment — claiming that they are inaccurate.

In short, specialists explain that it is hard to come up with inflexible personality types since we will all fall somewhere along a spectrum and tick more than one box.

Now, though, armed with big data and a fresh outlook, researchers from northwestern university — which is a research institution with campuses and facilities located across the united states — may have finally identified four accurate personality clusters.

The research, published yesterday in the journal nature human behaviour, analyzed the data of over 1.5 million people who filled in questionnaires assessing their personality traits.

"people have tried to classify personality types since hippocrates' time, but previous scientific literature has found that to be nonsense," explains study co-author prof. William revelle.

"now, these data show there are higher densities of certain personality types."

Prof. William revelle

The emergence of a new personality 'map'

The researchers analyzed data collected through large cohort endeavors that assessed personality traits. These included john johnson's ipip-neo, the mypersonality project, and the bbc's big personality test.

To accurately assess these data, the team also developed a novel algorithm that allowed it to "plot" a map of personality traits. The five most accepted traits are:

·         neuroticism, which refers to how likely a person is to feel moody, anxious, lonely, depressed, or angry

·         Extraversion, which refers to how sociable and assertive a person is

·         Openness, which speaks of a person's curiosity and their willingness to have new experiences

·         Agreeableness, referring to whether a person is perceived as sympathetic, considerate, and friendly

·         Conscientiousness, or a person's likelihood of being organized and dependable

In the end, four personality clusters emerged on the researchers' new map. They were: average, reserved, self-centered, and role model.

"the data came back, and they kept coming up with the same four clusters of higher density and at higher densities than you'd expect by chance, and you can show by replication that this is statistically unlikely," explains prof. Revelle.

"personality types only existed in self-help literature and did not have a place in scientific journals," says lead study author prof. Luís amaral, adding, "now, we think this will change because of this study."

Source: MedivalNewsToday