Published Research and Scholarly Papers
Since 1997, my site has hosted personality tests for over 20 million people. In addition to offering visitors instant, anonymous, and free results using the Big Five Personality test, the answers have been used in collaborations with university researchers and reviewed institutions, contributing to a deeper understanding of human personality.
Like all science, personality psychology relies on data to validate theories. The Internet happens to be a great tool for gathering survey data, which is why this project has been so useful to researchers. (For a complete list of published papers, review this full list of papers.) While my primary role has been in data collection, I’m proud to have supported this research. Plus, it’s pretty cool to have created a site that so many people have used to learn more about themselves. Thank you for exploring this research and contributing by taking the quiz!
Schwaba, T., Bleidorn, W., Hopwood, C. J., Gebauer, J. E., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2023). The impact of childhood lead exposure on adult personality: Evidence from the United States, Europe, and a large-scale natural experiment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(2), e2020104118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020104118
Childhood lead exposure has devastating lifelong consequences, as even low-level exposure stunts intelligence and leads to delinquent behavior. However, these consequences may be more extensive than previously thought because childhood lead exposure may adversely affect normal-range personality...
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Childhood lead exposure has lasting effects on adult personality, reducing traits like agreeableness and conscientiousness while increasing neuroticism.
Rentfrow, P. J., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. Perspectives in Psychological Science (2008)
Volumes of research show that people in different geographic regions differ psychologically. Most of that work converges on the conclusion that there are geographic differences in personality and...
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People in New York actually are more neurotic than people in California. And yes, people in Minnesota really are nice...
Wei, W., Lu, J. G., Galinsky, A. D., Wu, H., Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., et al. (2017). Nature Human Behaviour, 1(12), 890-895
Human personality traits differ across geographical regions. However, it remains unclear what generates these geographical personality differences. Because humans constantly experience and react to ambient temperature, we propose that temperature is a crucial environmental factor that is associated with individuals’ habitual behavioural patterns and, therefore, with fundamental dimensions of...
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Where you grow up might shape your personality! People in regions with mild temperatures tend to score higher in social and personal growth traits.
Gosling, Samuel D.; Sandy, Carson J.; Potter, Jeff. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, Vol. 23, No. 3 (2010)
Alleged personality differences between individuals who self-identify as "dog people" and "cat people" have long been the topic of wide-spread speculation and sporadic research. Yet existing studies offer a rather conflicting picture of what personality differences, if any, exist between the two types of person. Here we build on previous...
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I knew it! Dog people are more outgoing than cat people.
Carney, D. R., Jost, J. T., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. Political Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 6 (2008)
Although skeptics continue to doubt that most people are "ideological," evidence suggests that meaningful left-right differences do exist and that they may be rooted in basic personality dispositions, that is, relatively stable individual differences in psychological needs, motives, and orientations toward the world. Seventy-five years of theory and research on personality and political orientation has produced a long list of dispositions,...
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Confirmed: liberals are more open-minded, creative, curious, and novelty seeking; conservatives are more orderly, conventional, and better organized.
Soto, Christopher J.; John, Oliver P.; Gosling, Samuel D.; Potter, Jeff. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 100(2), Feb 2011, 330-348
Hypotheses about mean-level age differences in the Big Five personality domains, as well as 10 more specific facet traits within those domains, were tested in a very large cross-sectional sample (N = 1,267,218) of children, adolescents, and...
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As we age, traits like Agreeableness and Conscientiousness dip in adolescence but rise in adulthood, while Neuroticism drops, especially for women. A deep dive into how our personalities shift over time.
Obschonka, M., Stuetzer, M., Rentfrow, P. J., Lee, N., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2018). Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Two recent electoral results - Donald Trump’s election as US president and the UK’s Brexit vote - have re-ignited debate on the psychological factors underlying voting behavior. Both campaigns promoted themes of fear, lost pride, and loss...
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Regions with higher levels of Neuroticism were more likely to vote for Brexit and Trump. Fear and anxiety may have had a bigger role in populist voting than previously thought.
Talaifar, S., Stuetzer, M., Rentfrow, P. J., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J. (2022). Fear and deprivation in Trump's America: A regional analysis of voting behavior in the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential Elections. Personality Science, 3(1), e7447.
Since Trump was elected U.S. President in 2016, researchers have sought to explain his support, focusing on structural factors (e.g., economics) and psychological factors (e.g., negative emotions). This study integrates these perspectives in a regional analysis of 18+ structural variables,...
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Regions with higher levels of neuroticism and economic deprivation were more likely to vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Structural and psychological factors both play a role.
Gebauer, J. E., Bleidorn, W., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., Gosling, S. D., & Sedikides, C. (2020). The well-being benefits of person-culture match. Psychological Science, 31(10), 1283-1293.
People benefit psychologically when their personality matches the prevailing characteristics of their culture, but not everyone experiences this benefit equally. This large-scale study reveals that personality traits like agreeableness and...
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Matching your personality to your culture can boost well-being, but not for everyone! People with certain traits, like agreeableness and neuroticism, benefit more from this 'person-culture match,' while others may not see any benefit at all.
Rentfrow, P. J., Gosling, S. D., Jokela, M., Stillwell, D. J., Kosinski, M., & Potter, J, J. of Personality and Social Psychology, 105(6), 996–1012. (2013)
There is overwhelming evidence for regional variation across the United States on a range of key political, economic, social, and health indicators. However, a substantial body of research suggests that activities in each of these domains are typically influenced by psychological variables, raising the possibility that psychological forces...
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Turns out, it's not just the food or accents that change when you cross state lines in the U.S.—personalities do too!
Götz, F. M., Ebert, T., Gosling, S. D., Obschonka, M., Potter, J., & Rentfrow, P. J. (2021). American Psychologist, 76(6), 947.
Accumulating evidence suggests that culture changes in response to shifting socioecological conditions; economic development is a particularly potent driver of such change. Previous research has shown that economic development can induce slow but...
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Higher housing prices don’t just make cities expensive—they make them more open and creative, attracting adventurous new residents and changing the culture.
Götz, F. M., Stieger, S., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J., & Rentfrow, P. J. (2020). Physical topography is associated with human personality. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(11), 1135–1144.
Regional differences in personality are associated with a range of outcomes. This study examined how mountainous terrain correlates with regional variation in personality. Results showed that mountainous areas tend to have higher levels of openness but lower agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness.
Mountains aren’t just majestic – they shape personality! People in mountainous areas tend to be more open but less agreeable and extraverted.
Berkessel, J. B., Gebauer, J. E., Joshanloo, M., Bleidorn, W., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2021). National religiosity eases the psychological burden of poverty. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(39), e2103913118.
Lower socioeconomic status (SES) harms psychological well-being, but this burden is greatest in developed nations. Drawing on large global datasets, the study shows that national religiosity can buffer the harmful effects of low SES, suggesting that as religiosity declines, these effects will worsen.
National religiosity helps ease the psychological burden of poverty, particularly in developing nations, where religious norms can buffer the harmful effects of low socioeconomic status.
Peters, H., Götz, F. M., Ebert, T., Müller, S. R., Rentfrow, P. J., Gosling, S. D., Obschonka, M., Ames, D., Potter, J., & Matz, S. C. (2023). Regional personality differences predict variation in early COVID-19 infections and mobility patterns indicative of social distancing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(4), 848–872. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000439
The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark regional variation in the spread of the virus. While previous research has highlighted the impact of regional differences in sociodemographic and economic factors, we argue that regional differences in social and compliance behaviors—the...
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Regional personality differences influenced early COVID-19 spread: Openness increased risk, while Neuroticism provided protection.
Ramírez-Esparza, N., Gosling, S. D., Benet-Martínez, V., Potter, J. P., & Pennebaker, J. W. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 99-120. (2006)
Four studies examined and empirically documented Cultural Frame Switching (CFS; Hong, Chiu, & Kung, 1997) in the domain of personality. Specifically, we asked whether Spanish-English bilinguals show different personalities when using different languages? If so, are the two personalities consistent with cross-cultural differences in personality? To generate predictions about the specific cultural differences to expect, Study 1 documented personality differences between US and Mexican monolinguals. Studies 2-4 tested CFS in three samples of...
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If you speak more than one language, how you act depends on what language you're speaking!
Obschonka, M., Schmitt-Rodermund, E., Silbereisen, R. K., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2013)
In recent years the topic of entrepreneurship has become a major focus in the social sciences, with renewed interest in the links between personality and entrepreneurship. Taking a socioecological perspective to psychology, which emphasizes the role of social habitats and their interactions with mind and behavior, we investigated regional variation in and correlates of an...
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Entrepreneurial regions tend to cluster geographically in the U.S., Germany, and the U.K.!
Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2008)
This study examined Big Five self-report data from individuals aged 10 to 20, focusing on developmental trends in personality reporting. The study found that personality reports became more...
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How do kids’ personality reports differ from adults’? As children grow, self-reports become more accurate, but some traits like Agreeableness and Conscientiousness show clearer changes than others like Extraversion.
Srivastava, S., John, O, P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2003)
This study investigated how personality traits change in adulthood using data from over 132,000 participants. Results showed that traits such as conscientiousness and agreeableness increased...
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Personality keeps evolving in adulthood – it's not "set like plaster" by age 30.
Bleidorn, W., Klimstra, T. A., Denissen, J. J. A., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2013). Psychological Science (2013)
During early adulthood, individuals from different cultures across the world tend to become more agreeable, more conscientious, and less neurotic. Two leading theories offer different explanations for these pervasive age trends: Five-factor...
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Growing up means getting more agreeable, conscientious, and less neurotic, no matter where you live. Adulting really does change people worldwide!
Robins, R. W., Trzesniewski, K. H., Tracy, J. L., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. Journal of Psychology and Aging (2002)
This study examined age differences in self-esteem across the lifespan using data from over 326,000 participants. Results showed that self-esteem was high in childhood, dropped during adolescence, rose throughout adulthood, and declined in old age. These patterns held across gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and nationality.
Self-esteem stays high in childhood, dips in adolescence, and rises again in adulthood.
Robins, R. W., Tracy, J. L., Trzesniewski, K. H., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. Journal of Research in Personality (2001)
This study examined the relationship between self-esteem and the Big Five personality traits in a large sample. High self-esteem was strongly related to emotional stability, extraversion, and conscientiousness, with smaller correlations for agreeableness and openness. The findings held across age, sex, social class, and ethnicity.
Self-esteem is strongly related to personality traits across all ages.
Militaru, I. E., Serapio‐García, G., Ebert, T., Kong, W., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J., Rentfrow, P. J., & Götz, F. M. (2024). J. of Personality, 92(1), 88–110
Personality traits cluster across countries, regions, cities, and neighborhoods. What drives the formation of these clusters? Ecological theory suggests that physical locations shape humans'...
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The environment shapes who we are! People in cities are more open but less conscientious, while coastal regions are linked to openness and neuroticism.
Laajaj, R., Macours, K., Pinzon Hernandez, D. A., Arias, O., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J., Rubio-Codina, M., & Vakis, R. (2019). Challenges to capture the Big Five personality traits in non-WEIRD populations. Science Advances, 5(7), eaaw5226.
Can personality traits be measured and interpreted reliably across the world? While the use of Big Five personality measures is increasingly common across social sciences, their validity outside of western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) populations is unclear. Adopting a comprehensive psychometric approach to analyze 29 face-to-face surveys from 94,751 respondents in...
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Big Five personality measures often fail in face-to-face surveys in non-WEIRD populations due to response biases and education levels, while internet surveys show higher validity.
Macropsychological Factors Predict Regional Economic Resilience During a Major Economic Crisis
Obschonka, M., Stuetzer, M., Audretsch, D. B., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2016). Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), 95–104.
Do macropsychological factors predict 'hard' economic outcomes like regional economic resilience? Prior approaches focused on economic infrastructure, but psychological traits like emotional stability and entrepreneurship also matter. This study examined how regional psychological traits predicted economic recovery from the Great Recession of 2008–2009 in the United States and Great Britain.
Regions with emotionally stable and entrepreneurial traits bounced back faster from the 2008-2009 recession.
Robert de Vries, Samuel Gosling, Jeff Potter. Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 72, No. 12, June 2011, pp 1978-1985
Richard Wilkinson's "inequality hypothesis" describes the relationship between societal income inequality and population health in terms of the corrosive psychosocial effects of social hierarchy. An explicit component of this hypothesis is that inequality should lead individuals to become more competitive and self-focused, less friendly and altruistic. Together these traits are a close conceptual match to the opposing poles of the Big Five personality factor of Agreeableness; a widely used concept in the field of personality psychology. Based on this fact, we predicted that individuals living in more economically unequal U.S. states should be lower in Agreeableness than those living in...
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As inequality rises, we become less likely to help others. Think twice about where you live!
Kenneth S. Kendler, John Myers, Jeff Potter, and Jill Opalesky. Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 12 No. 2 (2009)
Web-based studies have become increasingly common in the social sciences, but have been rare in genetic epidemiology in general and twin studies in particular. We here review the methods, validity checks and preliminary correlational data from an on-line questionnaire collected from 2005-2008. During this time period, 44,112 individuals completed the questionnaire. This sample was 65.3% female, 85.4% 18 years or older, 72.0% Caucasian and had a mean educational level of 12.2 years. The...
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Using online personality tests appears to be as good as traditional survey methods for genetic epidemiology.
Nye, C. D., Allemand, M., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J., & Roberts, B. W. (2016). Journal of Personality, 84(4), 473–492.
A growing body of research demonstrates that older individuals tend to score differently on personality measures than younger adults. However, recent research using item response theory (IRT) has questioned these findings, suggesting that apparent age differences in personality traits merely reflect artifacts of the response process rather than...
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Do older adults actually have different personalities, or are personality tests misleading us? This study shows that the differences are real, not just a testing quirk.
Gosling, S. D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., & John, O. P. (2004). Should we trust Web–based studies? A comparative analysis of six preconceptions about Internet questionnaires. American Psychologist, 59, 93–104.
The rapid growth of the Internet provides a wealth of new research opportunities for psychologists. Internet data collection methods, with a focus on self-report questionnaires from self-selected samples, are evaluated and compared with traditional paper-and-pencil methods. Six preconceptions...
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This paper evaluates common preconceptions about web-based surveys, comparing their reliability and validity to traditional methods.
Obschonka, M., Stuetzer, M., Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., Lamb, M. E., Potter, J., & Audretsch, D. B. (in press). Do macro–psychological cultural characteristics of regions help solve the 'knowledge paradox' of economics? PLOS ONE.
In recent years, modern economies have shifted away from being based on physical capital and towards being based on new knowledge (e.g., new ideas and inventions). Consequently, contemporary economic theorizing and key public policies have been based on the assumption that resources for...
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Explores how regional psychological traits influence the economic paradox of knowledge underutilization.
Bleidorn, W., Arslan, R. C., Denissen, J. J. A., Rentfrow, P. J., Gebauer, J. E., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2016). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(3), 396–410.
Research and theorizing on gender and age differences in self-esteem have played a prominent role in psychology over the past 20 years. However, virtually all empirical research has been undertaken in the United States or other Western industrialized countries, providing a narrow empirical base from which to draw conclusions and develop theory. To broaden the empirical base, the present...
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Men report higher self-esteem than women worldwide, but the gender gap and age-related changes vary across cultures.