John Burn-Murdoch

They tend to have similar shapes of prevalence, by which I mean things like younger people tend to be historically more extroverted than older people.

Conscientiousness, which we're going to talk a lot about, has tended to be lower among teenagers, builds into adulthood.

So there are these pretty consistent patterns.

And then where people have tried to study the same people over time, they've tended to get pretty similar scores on those traits over time.

And as I say, that's been one of the reasons that

this has been accepted as a really valid instrument.

If someone scores as pretty conscientious in one survey and then not conscientious at all in the next, that would mean, what are we even doing here?

But historically, across space and time, these things stand out pretty well.

Sure.

So this is a good question because I think people often think that this is to do with someone's conscience and, you know, how sort of considerate and kind they are and everything.

And

That's an element of this.

But I think of it more and it helps to actually look at the survey questions that go into making up this trait.

So it's things like people are asked whether they strongly agree, strongly disagree, et cetera, about whether they are someone who does a thorough job.

whether they're someone who is reliable whether they're someone who tends to be organized uh are they easily distracted are they someone who makes plans regularly and follows through with those plans you know are they someone who's goal-oriented high agency that kind of thing um do they persevere so it's yeah it's about are you someone who goes out and gets things done do you

Do you come up with goals in the first place?

And then do you make sure that you pursue those goals?

Do your friends, your coworkers, can they rely on you to deliver essentially?

For sure.

So it's a great question.