Want to be happier? Then just change this one thing . . .

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life . . . change your personality.  That’s the bottom line thesis from a study published by psychologists from England and Australia. Their argument, in brief:

1. Personality is the single largest predictor of life satisfaction.  That is, of all the possible factors which influence our enjoyment of life, personality is the clear #1 (over and above income, marital status, job, possessions, etc.). 
2. So if you want to enjoy life more (think well-being, happiness), your next move might be to re-orient your personality, even before you head to monster.com, eHarmony or your local car dealer.  Explains lead study author Dr. Chris Boyce, from the University of Manchester’s School of Psychological Sciences: "We found that our personalities can and do change over time – something that was considered improbable until now – and that these personality changes are strongly related to changes in our well-being. Compared with external factors, such as a pay raise, getting married or finding employment, personality change is just as likely and contributes much more to improvements in our personal well being."

For decades, the prevailing view in both psychology and economics has been that personality is fixed. The study authors explain: “The traditional perspective in psychology is that personality is relatively enduring and stable – essentially personality has been thought of as fixed, particularly after the age of 30, where it has been said to be ‘set like plaster’ (Costa & McCrae, 1980, 1988). Any apparent change across time was attributed to measurement error.”  But research over the last decade has started change that view, with researchers claiming that personality is quite malleable and should be now considered more like “soft plaster.”

The implications, of course, are far ranging.   Consider two: 

1. Public policy.  British Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested that a measure of a nation’s ‘happiness’ may be a better indicator of national performance that GDP (Gross Domestic Product) alone.  And he is moving forward on an unprecedented project (that he first proposed in 2010) to explore how happy his nation is. His national survey will touch on unemployment, family, education and crime, but will also, according to a news report in The Sun, pose these four subjective questions:  1. how happy did you feel yesterday ?  2. how anxious did you feel yesterday?  3. how satisfied are you with your life nowadays; and  4. to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

Traditionally, the study authors explain, public policy has focused on economic factors, “such as increasing income or reducing unemployment, which are believed to be important ways in which an individual might obtain higher well-being.  However, our data suggests that a better way to understand how we might improve our well-being could be to focus on who we are and how we relate to the world around us.”  For example, changes in personality may lead to greater community involvement and an increase in the “willingness of individuals to work together to form mutually beneficial solutions,” according to the study authors.

2. Personality intervention.  The key, of course, is figuring out which personality characteristics to build, and which to shed.  And the key will be to learn more where we stand on the Big Five personality characteristics, which are: agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, extroversion (sociability, assertiveness)and neuroticism (e.g., the tendency to respond with negative emotions to threatening situations, frustration and loss). 
And if we begin to re-shape our personalities, how might we (and society) benefit?   
     -- Agreeableness . . . helps predicts better quality relationships;
     -- Conscientiousness  . . . is linked to achievement;
     -- Openness . . . is linked to intelligence and artistic talents; and
     -- Positive affect (more extroversion, less neuroticism) . . . helps individuals deal with stress.

 

Positive affect.  Hmmm.  I’ve always wanted to be better at dealing with stress. 

The study was conducted by Christopher Boyce and Alex Wood from the University of Manchester, UK, and Nattavudh Powdthavee from the London School of Economic and the University of Melbourne. They used a large data set of 7,500 individuals from Australia who answered questions on life satisfaction and personality, at two points in time.