A study published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior suggests that career success may be associated with detectable changes in personality traits. In the past, several studies have examined the usefulness of personality traits in predicting career success. However, the reverse – the effect of career success on personality, has received little attention.
The study by Andreas Hirschi et al. used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study to assess the effect of career success on personality. Personality traits and career success of participants (N=4767) were measured in three waves of interviews conducted in 2005, 2009, and 2013. ‘Career success’ was measured in terms of income (hourly income) and prestige (measured using Standard International Occupational Prestige Scale).
The study found that higher income (one indicator of career success) predicted a decrease in neuroticism and an increase in openness. According to the researchers, people who are successful in their careers maybe adapting their personality to the demands of their work and social life.
‘Neuroticism’ is a measure of individual differences in how people deal with stress and negative emotions. People high in trait neuroticism show a heightened sensitivity towards negative information. The findings of this study suggests that people who are successful may be suppressing their neurotic tendencies to deal with unavoidable “social role demands”.
“Results imply that attaining and sustaining success poses social role demands that are contrary to neuroticism, which leads successful people to suppress and decrease their neurotic tendencies over time.”
The personality trait ‘openness’ is a measure of how welcoming a person is of new ideas and new experiences. A 2015 study had found that openness makes one more successful in managerial and professional positions, and that openness is an outcome of success in these positions. This study reveals a similar association – success in the form of higher income predicted an increase in openness.
Researchers hypothesize that high-paying positions, once attained, may place new demands on the intellect (for example, to come up with more innovative solutions at work). This in turn might require one to be more open to new ideas and opportunities.
“Attaining and maintaining success necessitates meeting intellectual role demands, such as being open to new ideas and opportunities or finding innovative solutions to challenges and problems at work. In turn, meeting such demands would activate and strengthen openness over time.”
The study found that the other measure of career success – prestige predicted a decrease in extraversion and an increase in openness. Although researchers expected to find a positive association between prestige and openness, the negative association between prestige and extraversion was unexpected. This is because many previous studies have found a positive effect of extroversion on career growth and success.
“We had expected that extraversion would increase, not decrease, as a consequence of success.”
Researchers hypothesize that prestige may relax the demand on a person to maintain social ties and thus make them less extroverted – “it may be that once individuals attain a certain level of prestige, there is less need to be sociable, because one’s position in interpersonal contexts is defined by one’s status, and less by one’s social relations. Moreover, successful individuals might depend less on the support from others, decreasing their need to be sociable.”
It may be that while extroversion helps acquire career success, at a certain level of prestige (that comes with success), it becomes less useful. The study did not find any sex-differences in how success modifies personality. The effect of career success on personality also seems to be uniform across different age groups.
The study has some limitations. For example, researchers note the possibility that many factors may influence career success and changes in personalities. Also, they note that the effects found in the study were relatively small and hence caution against overstating the effects of success on personality.
Read more about the study by Andreas Hirschi, Claire Johnston, Filip De Fruyt, Anja Ghetta, and Ulrich Orth here.
