The Big Five at school : The impact of personality on educational attainment

Abstract

We investigated the effects of the Big Five personality traits (extroversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness) on educational attainment in the Netherlands, using data from the '1998 Family Survey Dutch Population'. All five basic personality traits have significant effects. Emotional stability, and especially openness, affect educational success positively, whereas extroversion, friendliness, and conscientiousness have negative effects. Generally, the effects of personality are equal for men and women, the only exception being the effect of openness, which is larger for men. As personality is not correlated with social background, the effects of social background were not overestimated in models without controls for personality traits.