Behaviors of the Big FiveLorien G. Elleman1, David M. Condon2, and William Revelle1

1Department of Psychology, Northwestern University; 2Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University

Figure 1: Participants by country. Darker countries have more participants.

Figure 2: U.S. participants by ZIP code.

Figure 3: Participants by age andgender.

Figure 4: U.S. participants byrace/ethnicity.

Tables 1-5: Top 10 behaviors for each BigFive scale (correlation and .95 C.I.)

Table 1: Intellect

Behavior Corr. Lower UpperLearned a new skill. .35 .31 .39Tried something completely new. .34 .30 .38Read poetry. .31 .27 .35Read in bed before going to sleep. .31 .27 .34Produced a work of art. .30 .26 .34Read an entire book in one sitting. .29 .25 .33Wrote poetry. .29 .25 .33Studied some subject. .29 .25 .32Read a book. .28 .24 .32Bought a book. .28 .24 .32

Table 2: Conscientiousness

Behavior Corr. Lower UpperCleaned the house. .36 .32 .40Made a bed. .29 .25 .33Wrote a thank-you note. .29 .25 .33Took a child on an outing. .25 .21 .29Bought or picked flowers. .24 .20 .28Ironed linens or clothes. .23 .19 .27Worked on a retirement plan. .23 .19 .27Bought plants for a garden or yard. .23 .19 .27Prayed (not including blessings at meals). .23 .19 .27Cared for a potted plant. .22 .17 .26

Table 3: Extraversion

Behavior Corr. Lower UpperEntertained six or more people. .48 .45 .51Went to a large party. .42 .38 .45Planned a party. .41 .37 .45Had someone over for dinner. .39 .35 .42Went to a small party. .38 .35 .42Went dancing. .34 .30 .37Wrote a thank-you note. .32 .28 .35Bought a fashionable item of clothing. .30 .26 .34Went on a date. .29 .25 .33Bought or picked flowers. .29 .25 .33

Table 4: Agreeableness

Behavior Corr. Lower UpperPlayed with a child. .38 .34 .41Wrote a thank-you note. .36 .33 .40Took a child on an outing. .35 .31 .38Donated money to charity. .33 .29 .36Bought or picked flowers. .33 .29 .36Had someone over for dinner. .32 .28 .36Entertained six or more people. .32 .28 .36Let a child win a game. .32 .28 .35Planned a party. .32 .28 .35Read a story to a child. .31 .28 .35

Table 5: Emotional Stability

Behavior Corr. Lower UpperAte too much. -.21 -.25 -.17Spent > hour thinking about what to wear. -.20 -.24 -.16Spent > minutes thinking about what to wear. -.19 -.24 -.15Watched too much television. -.19 -.23 -.15Obtained stock market prices. .18 .14 .23Read a book on a financial topic. .17 .13 .21Went on a hike. .16 .12 .20Ate or drank while driving. .16 .12 .20Read a fashion-related magazine. -.15 -.19 -.11Worked on a retirement plan. .15 .11 .19

Figure 5: Correlation matrix of Big Five scales and behavioral scales (each ofwhich is composed of the “top 10” behavioral items from Tables 1-5).Color-coded for size and sign. Lower diagonal: raw correlations. Upperdiagonal: corrected for item overlap and disattenuation. Diagonal: alphas.

Emo. Behaviors

Agr. Behaviors

Ext. Behaviors

Con. Behaviors

Int. Behaviors

Emotional Stability

Agreeableness

Extraversion

Conscientiousness

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0.22 0.18 0.08 −0.07 0.41 0.06 0.1 −0.05 0.01 0.53

0.18 0.3 0.48 0.51 0.11 0.49 0.85 0.81 0.84 0.01

0.23 0.21 0.57 0.43 0.1 0.51 0.52 0.84 0.68 −0.07

0.14 0.45 0.36 0.44 0.11 0.38 0.77 0.65 0.68 0.16

0.52 0.05 0.2 0.22 0.08 0.79 0.3 0.42 0.4 0.09

0.19 0.21 0.27 0.11 0.93 0.09 0.13 0.11 0.12 0.58

0.2 0.29 0.51 0.92 0.12 0.25 0.53 0.49 0.58 −0.11

0.32 0.22 0.94 0.47 0.29 0.23 0.43 0.63 0.53 0.11

0.15 0.91 0.24 0.27 0.22 0.06 0.54 0.24 0.34 0.26

0.89 0.13 0.29 0.18 0.21 0.62 0.17 0.27 0.21 0.32

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1

Summary of study

I Figures 1 and 2: Data in this study were collected from a self-report onlinepersonality assessment from May 2013 to February 2014. Participants (n = 31k)represented 166 countries. U.S. participants (n = 19k) were from 8k ZIP codes.

I Figures 3 and 4: The sample was evenly split between men and women.Participants ranged in age from 14 to 90, with a median age of 22 years. Ofparticipants from the U.S., 28% were non-white.

I Tables 1-5: Two hundred behavioral items (from the ORAIS) were correlated with BigFive scales (from the IPIP BFFM) to determine the ten behaviors that were mostassociated with each scale.

I Figure 5: Each set of “top 10” behavioral items was formed into a scale andcorrelated with the Big Five scales. With the exception of emotional stability,behavioral scales had high reliabilities (α ≈ .80). Each behavioral scale was highlycorrelated with its corresponding Big Five scale, but had discriminant validity(r ≈ .50). Behavioral scales of conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeablenesshad high intercorrelations, even after accounting for the scales containing some ofthe same items (r ≈ .70; upper diagonal).

I Behavioral scales could prove to be useful in addition to typical personality scales.An important future direction will be to compare the predictive validities of the twotypes of scales.

Email Lorien Elleman at: lgelleman@u.northwestern.edu Take our test: sapa-project.org Review our research: personality-project.org/sapa Funded in part by NSF grant SMA-1419324.