Study 2

(2) Which aspect of openness to experience (intellect vs. openness) predicts humor

Sixteen Going on Sixty-Six: A Longitudinal Study of Personality Stability and Change across 50 Years

How much do people’s personalities change or remain stable from high-school to retirement? To address these questions, we used a large US sample (N = 1,795) that assessed people’s personality traits in adolescence and 50 years later. We also used two independent samples, one cross-sectional and one short-term longitudinal (N = 3,934 and N = 38, respectively), to validate the personality scales and estimate measurement error. This was the first study to test personality stability/change over a 50-year time span in which the same data source was tapped (i.e., self-report). This allowed us to use four different methods (rank-order stability, mean-level change, individual-level change, and profile stability) answering different developmental questions. We also systematically tested gender differences. We found that the average rank-order stability was .31 (corrected for measurement error) and .23 (uncorrected). The average mean-level change was half of a standard deviation across personality traits, and the pattern of change showed maturation. Individual-level change also supported maturation, with 20-60% of the people showing reliable change within each trait. We tested three aspects of personality profile stability, and found that overall personality profile stability was .37, distinctive profile stability was .17, and profile normativeness was .51 at baseline and .62 at the follow-up. Gender played little role in personality development across the lifespan. Our findings suggest that personality has a stable component across the lifespan, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable and people mature as they age

Study 1

(1) Does the trait openness to experience predict humor production ability above and beyond intelligence and demographics

Humor Production and Openness to Experience

Across two preregistered studies we addressed the following questions: (1) Does the trait openness to experience predict humor production ability above and beyond intelligence and demographics? (2) Which aspect of openness to experience (intellect vs. openness) predicts humor? In Study 1 (N = 489), participants self-reported on demographics, socio-economic status (SES), and personality, and were tested on intelligence and humor production. SEM analyses showed that openness to experience (β = .28, 95% CI [.14, .42]) predicted humor production ability above and beyond intelligence, demographics, SES and other personality traits. Study 2 (N= 414) replicated and extended Study 1. Specifically, we found that openness to experience predicted humor production ability above and beyond the other predictors (β =.21, 95% CI [.03, .28]), and that, of the two aspects of openness to experience, openness (but not intellect) drove the association between personality and humor production ability