On the long-run association between personality traits and road crashes: Findings from the British cohort study

Inconsistent and very weak evidence for a direct association between childhood personality and adult ideology

OBJECTIVE

We add depth and breadth to the study of the childhood personality-adult ideology link with additional data, measures, and measurement approaches.

BACKGROUND

Past research in (political) psychology has put forward that individual differences in psychological needs shape ideology. Most evidence supporting this claim is cross-sectional. Two previous longitudinal studies showed preliminary evidence that childhood personality traits linked to negativity bias correlate with political ideology in adulthood, yet these studies have limitations.

METHODS

We report the results from two longitudinal studies (combined N = 13,822) conducted in the United Kingdom that measure childhood personality (5-11 years old) and political ideology from puberty (age 16) to early (age 26) and middle adulthood (age 42).

RESULTS

We find very weak and inconsistent evidence that childhood personality traits related to negativity bias are directly associated with general conservatism, social conservatism, or economic conservatism across different stages of adulthood. Across the board, Bayes Factors most often indicate strong evidence for the null hypothesis.

CONCLUSION

We offer evidence that the results of previous research are not as robust or as consistent as scholars in the extant literature presume. Our findings call for more, not less, research on the link between childhood personality and political ideology.

The Impact of Two MMPI-2-Based Models of Personality in Predicting Driving Behavior. Can Demographic Variables Be Disregarded?

The driver’s personality is a key human factor for the assessment of the fitness to drive (FTD), affecting driving decisions and behavior, with consequences on driving safety. No previous study has investigated the effectiveness of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2 scales for predicting the FTD. The present study aimed to compare two MMPI-2-based models of normal and pathological personality traits (i.e., Inventory of Driving-related Personality Traits (IVPE)-MMPI vs. Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) scale) in predicting the cognitive FTD. One hundred young and eighty-seven adult active drivers completed the MMPI-2 questionnaire as a measure of personality and a computerized driving task measuring for resilience of attention (Determination Test (DT)), reaction speed (Reaction Test (RS)), motor speed (MS), and perceptual speed (Adaptive Tachistoscopic Traffic Perception Test (ATAVT)). The effects of age, gender, and education were also controlled. Results showed that the models controlled for demographics overperformed those neglecting them for each driving outcome. A negative effect of age was found on each driving task; the effect of gender, favoring males, was found in both the RS and the MS, and the effect of education was found on the DT and the ATAVT. Concerning personality traits, significant effects were found of sensation seeking (IVPE-MMPI) on each outcome; of anxiety (as a measure of emotional instability; IVPE-MMPI) and introversion (PSY-5) on the measures of MS; and of psychopathic deviation (as a measure of self-control; IVPEMMPI) on the DT. The study confirmed the key role of demographic factors in influencing the FTD, further suggesting the usefulness of some MMPI2-based personality scales in the assessment of driving-related personality determinants.