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A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reveals that so-called "pleasant" individuals are more likely to find themselves in financial difficulty than their "less pleasant peers".
Joe Gladstone, assistant professor at UCL School of Management in the United Kingdom, explained to Newsweek That he and his co-author, Sandra C. Matz of Columbia Business School, wanted to understand if having a nice and warm personality – what academics call pleasant – is related to the deterioration of their financial situation.
The pleasant is a trait of personality characterized by kindness, trust and kindness, according to Gladstone.
Read more: Studies suggest that psychopaths do not know if a person is really sad or scared
The team began relying on previous evidence that those who are comfortable are more likely to have lower credit ratings and lower incomes. The researchers therefore asked the following question: Would amenability make a person more vulnerable to bankruptcy, and what are the psychological mechanisms underlying this potential relationship?
To test their hypothesis, the team relied on data from more than 3 million people from five studies that formed the basis for broader research.
The researchers drew on information from datasets, including two online surveys that surveyed nearly 4,000 participants about their financial status and attitudes towards money; a nationally representative survey on similar topics involving more than 4,000 people; bank account data about 500 people; a usability study involving nearly 5,000 volunteers; and insolvency and personality measures grouped geographically.
"Among all these different methodologies, we find that the pleasant is associated with various indicators of financial difficulties, including a reduction in savings, an increase in debt and higher default rates," Gladstone said.
The people suggested seemed less concerned with money, and therefore, did not manage their money wisely, suggested the research. At the same time, all pleasant people did not have the same risk of financial hardship, Gladstone said.
"The relationship is much stronger for low-income people who do not seem to have the financial means to compensate for their pleasant personality," he said.
Gladstone said that he was particularly surprised to find that friendliness in childhood seemed to be a predictor of financial hardship later in life. "Thus, the consistency of results in very different types of data is one of the strengths of this research," he said.
Since financial hardship has negative consequences for both the physical and mental well-being of the individual and society at large, Gladstone hopes that research will form the basis of policies to support "low-income, pleasant people". ".
"In fact, banks could simply offer incentives to save more or reduce debt aligned with a nice personality, for example. by appealing to the importance of keeping track of their balances to protect their families, "he explained.
Dr. Alan Southern, Lecturer at the Management School of the University of Liverpool, UK, said Newsweek the results "correspond to popular imagery about the wicked rich and the poor poor."
Southern argued, however, that the conclusion was too general and could fuel the myth that people are poor because they lack the entrepreneurial spirit.
"You could say that we must all be responsible for our contribution to society, yet it ignores many of the social and economic structures that create the levels of inequality we live in," he said.
In another study on personality traits, published in the journal Human behavior of nature, four broad personality types in which humans are located have been identified: average; Reserve; egocentric; and model.
The study was based on data from 1.5 million responses to questionnaires. William Revelle, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University and author of the study, commented in a statement at the time: "People have been trying to classify personality types since the time of Hippocrates, but the previous scientific literature has shown that it was absurd, these data show that there are higher densities of certain types of personality. "
This article has been updated with Dr. Alan Southern's comments.
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