Behavioural Science Centre, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling.
J Appl Psychol. 2017 Apr;102(4):700-709. doi: 10.1037/apl0000167. Epub 2016 Nov 28.
Existing research on Big Five personality and unemployment has relied on personality measures elicited after the respondents had already spent years in the labor market, an experience that could change personality. We clarify the direction of influence by using the British Cohort Study (N = 4,206) to examine whether conscientiousness and other Big Five personality traits at age 16-17 predict unemployment over age 16-42. Our hypothesis that higher conscientiousness in adolescence would predict lower unemployment was supported. In analyses controlling for intelligence, gender, and parental socioeconomic status, the less conscientious (-1 SD) had a predicted probability of unemployment twice as high (3.4% vs. 1.7%) as the highly conscientious (+1 SD), an effect size comparable to intelligence. Mediation analysis revealed that academic motivation and educational attainment explained only 8.9% of this association. Fostering conscientiousness in early life may be an effective way to reduce unemployment throughout adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record
现有关于大五人格与失业的研究依赖于受访者在劳动力市场中工作多年后得出的人格衡量标准，而这一经历可能会改变人格。我们通过使用英国队列研究（N=4206）来明确影响方向，检验青少年时期的尽责性和其他大五人格特质是否可以预测 16-42 岁的失业。我们假设青少年时期更高的尽责性会预测更低的失业率，这一假设得到了支持。在控制了智力、性别和父母社会经济地位的分析中，不那么尽责的（-1 SD）的失业预测概率是高度尽责的（+1 SD）的两倍（3.4%比 1.7%），这一效应大小与智力相当。中介分析表明，学业动机和教育程度仅解释了这一关联的 8.9%。在早期培养尽责性可能是减少整个成年期失业的有效方法。
