Does personality change matter? A mega-analytic test of predicting life outcomes with personality change

Abstract

A considerable amount of research has established the tendency of the Big Five traits to fluctuate across time. This malleable property of personality has led to an interest in purposefully eliciting changes in traits through interventions. However, this assumption, that changes in traits predict similar outcomes as average levels of traits, has yet to be rigorously tested with a broad range of outcomes. Importantly, establishing the predictive validity of personality change requires additional considerations beyond what is necessary for the traits themselves. In an effort to address the missing systematic test of the claim, we integrate multiple longitudinal datasets to comprehensively examine the nature of the unique relationship that changes in the Big Five traits have with numerous outcomes across a broad range of ages. Special attention is given to model specification choices and basic moderators are included to give an indicator of the robustness of these effects.