Just how neurotic do you have to be to work as an actor or singer? Well, according to a study published this year in the prestigious Journal of Applied Psychology, there are reliable differences in the average personality profiles across different occupations.
The researchers analysed personality and occupational data from over 68,000 people. Personality was measured using the popular “Big 5” model that captures neuroticism, extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness.
Crane operators were found to be some of the workers least open to new ideas. And good thing too.Credit: Bloomberg
The results were sometimes surprising, and at other times obvious. The highest average scorers on conscientiousness were ships’ engineers, dental assistants and therapists, and construction managers.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? We all want a diligent engineer checking the ship before the cruise, rather than some slap-dash unreliable type. The lowest average scorers on this trait were visual artists, followed worryingly by electronics engineers, and then graphic designers.
Who doesn’t like to work alongside agreeable colleagues? Well, sometimes we need those prepared to stand their ground and to be disagreeable if things are to get done properly. The highest scorers on this measure were electronics engineers, web and multimedia developers and then psychologists.
Should I be concerned that I started off studying electrical engineering before transferring to psychology, or does it explain what on the surface seems like quite a radical shift? The lowest scorers on agreeableness were “unspecified sales workers” – well, you might be a bit narky if you were told you were unspecified. The self-employed and entrepreneurs came next.
No prizes for guessing that advertising types, actors and event planners (followed by fitness trainers) score the highest on extraversion.
The most open to new ideas were, unsurprisingly the visual artists, followed by language teachers, authors, and, coming a very close fourth psychologists. If you want to find those less open to new ideas, one must look to the heavens to find crane operators.
Makes sense, you don’t want them up there in the sky suddenly deciding to experiment with centrifugal force. Despite plumbers spending their days opening blockages, this does not apparently extend to their minds, coming in second on the lowest scorers on openness.