calling all book nerds, movie buffs, & scientists

hey boo’s,

last week you high fived the big 5 by learning about the 5 traits, the test, the scores, & geopsychology.

this week you’re hugging the big 5 by going back-to-school with 3 truly mind blowing scientific studies.

we’re taking the theories into the real world to help us better understand our own & other’s preferences.

by the end, you’ll finally understand why that one friend loves chick lit & crime flicks.

CANOE refresher

biggest things to remember about the big 5 from last week.

big five is the gold standard for personality testing.

aka five factor model, ffm, OCEAN, & CANOE. 

here’s how to think about the range of scores for the 5 traits

if you want to take the quiz, this one from fivethirtyeight is the best

supported by science

so what makes scientists & psychologists like this test so much?

there are 3 main reasons according to the book “personality” by daniel nettle.

#1. science has proven that genetic variation explains 50% of the variation in big five personality traits.

traits can often be traced to a specific gene you were born with.

these genes then connect to a specific underlying brain circuit.

a circuit that controls a whole family of related psychological functions.

#2 is that scores are statistically proven to be stable over time.

as we age, we tend to see:

• ⬆️ increases in agreeableness & conscientiousness

• ⬇️ decreases in extroversion, openness, & neuroticism

which makes sense. when we’re younger, we’re trying to make something of ourselves in the world. to do that, we need ambition, creativity, exploration, & competitiveness. these empower us with functions of agency.

as we get older, we work to enhance our connectedness to others. we need more empathy & organization to be a good citizen.

#3 is their predictive power when aggregated over many instances.

you’ll see how in these next two examples that i discovered thanks to a tweet by ethan mollick, a professor at wharton studying tech & innovation.

trait trends

here’s the tweet with the stat that blew my mind:

so wild that 70-80% of the psychological traits listed as rows 

can be determined by the big five trait columns going across (N, E, C, A, O).

the brighter red numbers closer to 1 indicate that a high score on the specific trait row is related to a high score on the big 5 trait column.

the brighter blue numbers closer to -1 indicate that a high score on the specific trait row is related to a low score on the big 5 trait column.

here’s a few examples:

• 🎢 high neuroticism is related to

  • high worry

  • low self-compassion

• 🎉 high extraversion is related to high fun-seeking

• ⏰ high conscientiousness is related to

  • high self control

  • low impulsivity

• 😇 high agreeableness is related to

  • high empathy

  • low verbal aggression

• 🎨 high openness is related to high need for cognition

and so many more in this 2021 academic paper if you want to really nerd out.

reading big 5

on a lighter note, your tastes in books & movies can be inferred by your big five personality traits.

a scientific study from 2017 predicted book genre preferences based on user generated content labels.

for my visual learners, these pie charts show big 5 preferences for reading:

so this means you can tell more than you probably thought about your friends, coworkers, & dating prospect’s personality traits based on their favorite reads.

here are the specific preferences for each trait:

worth noting that i did not come up with these tags, they’re from goodreads.

🎨 openness
higher scorers read intellectually challenging books (back burners & classic lit)
lower scorers read mainstream, easier to digest books (light fantasy)

⏰ conscientiousness
higher scorers read informative & professional development books (grown up stuff & history)
lower scorers read light-hearted books (fantasy, humor, & graphic novels)

🎉 extraversion
higher scorers read books with social themes & about the lives of others (relationship advice, chick-lit, & memoirs)
lower scorers read books that indulge the imagination (fantasy, horror, & sci-fi)

😇 agreeableness
higher scorers read books with family & religious themes (relationship advice & christian classics)
lower scorers read books with darker themes (psychological dramas, italian renaissance, & cult classics)

🎢 neuroticism
higher scorers read books that reflect their emotional states or provide escape (pretty writing, sad endings, & paranormal)
lower scorers read self-improvement books (politics, philosophy, & business)

yet another reason to ask someone what they’re reading!

you’ll get a book rec AND unveil a personality trait.

watching big 5

your favorite movie genre is also telling about your big 5 traits according to this study from 2021.

here’s what you can infer by genres:

• action = slightly more conscientious & agreeable

• adventure = more open & less extraverted

• crime = more extroverted & less agreeable

• family = more agreeable

• sci-fi & fantasy = greater openness, lower extraversion, & lower conscientiousness

• horror = more neurotic, less agreeable, & less extraverted

• sports = lower on Openness & Neuroticism; higher on Conscientiousness, Extraversion, & Agreeableness

for the visual learners, here’s a plot of the correlations by genre:

so your personality may explain why you did or did not like barbie.

and how likely you are to like my upcoming pick.

my pick

last weekend, i attended cody rigsby’s talk in austin, tx for his book tour.

if you don’t know cody, he’s is a very popular peloton instructor that was a second runner up on dancing with the stars. he fully sold out the theater & has 1.3M followers on instagram so odds are high you’ve heard of him.

fun fact: we took our meditation teacher training together in nyc.

i’m so inspired with this journey over the past several years so i had to read his book & i’m loving it. it’s a memoir filled with advice on friendships & relationships.

the book’s title is top tier:

XOXO, Cody: An Opinionated Homosexual's Guide to Self-Love, Relationships, and Tactful Pettiness

during the talk, cody defined tactful pettiness as throwing shade out of love.

by the title and that definition, you can tell that this is a feel good read that will likely make you laugh out loud.

so if you’re high on extroversion, love memoirs, or want an entertaining read, i highly recommend this book, filled with this kinda energy & messages:

all together now

today we’ve really seen the power & prevalence of the big five.

traits we are born with significantly shape how we feel, what we read, & what we watch.

understanding where you sit on the range for reach traits will help you better understand why you may have starkly different preferences from your best friend or mother or lover.

and most importantly, embrace the differences!

we all have the five traits just like we all have a height & weight.

as cody always says “you do you, boo.”

make merry,

p.s. whenever you need help, i’m always here for you from custom cards to corporate workshops to our merry membership. i want to make you merry!

p.p.s. if you enjoyed this newsletter, it would mean the world to me if you shared with a friend or coworker. help the merry go round <3