FRIDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Disagreeableness as a personality trait later in life may be a sign of intelligence, while agreeableness predicts intelligence earlier in life, according to the results of a study presented at the 114th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in New Orleans.
Thomas Baker, M.A., of York University in Toronto, Canada and Jacqueline Bichsel, Ph.D., of Pennsylvania State University in Harrisburg, compared a sample of 381 adults aged 19 to 89 to determine what personality traits predict intelligence across the life span. Subjects were classified into three groups: young adults aged 18 to 60; older adults who were cognitively comparable to the younger adults; and adults older than 60 who were cognitively superior to both the first and second group.
Openness and extraversion predicted general knowledge in young adults, but personality was less important in explaining overall differences in cognitive abilities of the older cognitively comparable adults compared to the younger group, the study showed.
Among people in the cognitively superior older group, "agreeableness was found to have a contrary relationship with general knowledge suggesting that a disagreeable nature may go hand in hand with better vocabulary and knowledge retention in older age," Baker said in a statement.
More Information
