Who gets ahead in life? : Personality traits and childhood background in economic success

• In many societies around the world, the ideal is that anyone can achieve a successful lifeindependent of family background. An indication of such social mobility could be that personalitycharacteristics have stronger impact than childhood background on economic success.The present study investigated how much of life outcomes (i.e., educationalattainment, annual income, and life outcome satisfaction) were accounted for by adult personalitytraits (the Big Five), when controlled for childhood socio-economic status (SES).The results from a large, representative Swedish sample (N = 5280) showed that personalitytraits (especially neuroticism) were associated as much as or more than childhood SESto annual income and life outcome satisfaction, whereas childhood SES related more toeducational attainment. These results may help facilitate our understanding of the mechanismsbehind individual economic success.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Personality

Socio-economic status

Life satisfaction

Childhood

background

Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience

Kognitiv neurovetenskap och filosofi

Psychology

Socio-economic status; Life satisfaction; Childhood background

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)