Draco |
Neville |
Draco, on the other hand, is an aloof, rude person who tends
to be competitive and suspicious of others. He’s cynical about people – he doesn’t
expect them to return favors, so he’s not that likely to be helpful. He thinks
modesty is overrated.
How would personality psychology say these two differ? Well,
they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum of “agreeableness” – if you feel more
similar to Neville, you’re probably high in agreeableness, and if Draco hits closer to home, you’re probably relatively disagreeable. Agreeableness
captures how interpersonally warm, trusting, modest, altruistic, cooperative,
straightforward, sympathetic, and easygoing you are, and is one of the building
blocks of personality.
So what does being agreeable mean for your work life and
parenting styles? How about your health outcomes and environmental behavior?
Let’s see what the literature has to say.
Getting
along, not getting ahead: Agreeableness at work (Judge et al., 2012)
How agreeable people fare in the
workplace fits the “nice guys finish last” mentality (as Juli has written about here before): in general, being more agreeable is associated with making less money.
This could perhaps be explained by the nature of salary negotiation: being
agreeable, modest, and compliant may hurt one’s ability to demand a higher
salary.
source |
On a related note, disagreeable folks are also more likely to have been fired in their lives, but spend no more time than agreeable people being unemployed, suggesting they somehow make up for their antagonistic interpersonal style when it comes to job-hunting (perhaps spinning their qualities as useful workplace attributes).
The
Agreeable Parent (de Haan et al., 2012)
source |
The
Agreeable Physique (Sutin et al., 2011)
source |
Well, for some reason disagreeable
people tend to continue eating after they feel satiated, and exhibit more
prolonged bodily responses to stressors, both of which are associated with more
weight gain. Cumulatively, these behaviors and trends may contribute to the cardiovascular
problems that plague antagonistic folks.
Agreeable
Environmentalism (Milfont & Sibley, 2012)
source |
The
good news: Agreeableness across the lifespan (Srivastava et al., 2003)
So now we know that more agreeable
people make warmer parents, have healthier weight trends, and are more
environmentally inclined. But what happens to you, dear reader, if you identified
with Draco’s (disagreeable) profile at the outset of this post? Well, besides making more money than your
agreeable buddies, you may also find yourself becoming more agreeable as you
get older…
source |
Luckily, now that you know all the
perks of being agreeable, you won’t think you’re merely losing your edge with
your newfound sympathetic nature. Think of it instead as being beneficial for –
if not your pocketbook – your family, your health, and your planet.
The articles:
de Haan, A., Deković, M., & Prinzie, P. (2012). Longitudinal impact of parental and adolescent personality on parenting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102 (1), 189-199 DOI: 10.1037/a0025254The articles:
Judge, T., Livingston, B., & Hurst, C. (2012). Do nice guys—and gals—really finish last? The joint effects of sex and agreeableness on income. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102 (2), 390-407 DOI: 10.1037/a0026021
Milfont, T., & Sibley, C. (2012). The big five personality traits and environmental engagement: Associations at the individual and societal level Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32 (2), 187-195 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.12.006
Srivastava, S., John, O., Gosling, S., & Potter, J. (2003). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (5), 1041-1053 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.1041
Sutin, A., Ferrucci, L., Zonderman, A., & Terracciano, A. (2011). Personality and obesity across the adult life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101 (3), 579-592 DOI: 10.1037/a0024286
Excellent article! Thank you for sharing a bright side to being agreeable!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! I'm glad there are good things out there for the kind-hearted people, too.
DeleteYes Draco makes more money but family is probably more important to Neville. That's why Neville will more often than not be a better parent. There's more to life than money for some people. I find it interesting people are agreeable the more they get older. Altruism probably increases as well. Thanks for sharing agreeable people are better in some areas than Draco!!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right that agreeableness is probably fostered more in warmer families, and may indeed affect/prioritize valuing family and being a good parent. Glad I could help show that nice guys don't always finish last!
DeleteAs an interesting aside, it appears the other thing, besides income, where Draco is going to be much more successful than Neville is his love life, or rather sex life, especially if he is full “Dark Triad” (Narcissism, psychopathic traits, Machiavellianism). I don’t know how much to trust the figures I’ve read, but the difference is supposedly quite large.
ReplyDeleteBy the time someone finally agrees to let Neville do his "Agreeable Parent" thing with her, he may very well finish up raising Draco’s child.
I haven't heard of the Dark Triad before, but that sounds like a pretty dangerous mix. I don't know what kind of predictions I would make for one's love life based on possessing those qualities, but it may predict more success in terms of quantity rather than fulfilling, intimate relations. Interesting point, though!
DeleteI wonder why Draco is fatter. Is low Agreeableness linked to high Sensation Seeking?
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the BMI findings, too, and why it is that low-A people may carry their calories and regulate their immune systems differently. I don't think Agreeableness is connected to sensation seeking - that's more a matter of Extraversion...
Deletehmm this site is amazing as well as being informative to everyone.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
Delete