Rachid Laajaj|Karen Macours|Daniel Alejandro Pinzon Hernandez|Omar Arias|Samuel D. Gosling|Jeff Potter|Marta Rubio?Codina|Renos Vakis
Challenges to capture the big five personality traits in non-WEIRD populations
Universidad de Los Andes|Paris School of Economics|Universidad de Los Andes|World Bank|The University of Texas at Austin|University of Melbourne|Inter-American Development Bank|World Bank
personality traits measured interpreted reliably across world use big five personality measures increasingly common across social sciences validity outside western educated industrialized rich democratic weird populations unclear adopting comprehensive psychometric approach analyze 29 facetoface surveys 94751 respondents 23 low middleincome countries show commonly used personality questions generally fail measure intended personality traits show low validity findings contrast much higher validity measures attained internet surveys 198356 selfselected respondents countries discuss systematic response patterns enumerator interactions low education levels collectively distort personality measures assessed largescale surveys results highlight risk misinterpreting big five survey data provide warning nave interpretations personality traits without evidence validity