Study finds agreeableness a helpful trait for general success in life:
Michael Wilmot, assistant professor of management at the University of Arkansas, and Deniz Ones, professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, examined a wide range of variables, from psychological and physical health to interpersonal relationships, and from leadership effectiveness to performance in academic and organizational settings.
To better understand the impact of agreeableness, the researchers summarized results from 142 meta-analyses reporting effects for 275 variables. In all, the results comprised more than 1.9 million participants from roughly 3,900 studies. Meta-analysis is a process used to systematically merge multiple independent findings using statistical methods to calculate an overall effect.
Wilmot and Ones found that agreeableness had a desirable effect on 93% of variables and outcomes.
"We wanted to do a quantitative summary and synthesis of what we have learned about relations between agreeableness, one of the so-called Big 5 personality traits, and its consequences," Wilmot said. "We know this is important—perhaps now more than ever—because agreeableness is the personality trait primarily concerned with helping people and building positive relationships, which is not lost on organizational leaders."
[...] Wilmot and Ones also synthesized eight themes that captured the characteristic functioning of agreeableness across all variables and categories. The themes illustrated the essence of how agreeableness is helpful to both individuals and organizations. The themes were:
[...] "Taken altogether, the interaction among the themes became clear," Wilmot said. "Agreeableness was marked by work investment, but this energy was best directed at helping or cooperating with others. In other words, teamwork."
Journal Reference:
Michael P. Wilmot, Deniz S. Ones.
Agreeableness and Its Consequences: A Quantitative Review of Meta-Analytic Findings
Society for Personality and Social Psychology, (DOI: 10.1177/10888683211073007)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @03:13PM (11 children)
Has some truth to it and 'girls always go for the bad boy' has some truth to with the end result that nice-guy genes have been deselected from the gene pool.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:27PM (8 children)
I just had to wait out the bad guy, then I got the girl, we're both really happy about the outcome. Agreeable-ness and patience go together.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @05:10PM (7 children)
Did you get to raise the bad boy's child/children?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:10PM (6 children)
Nope, they were already adults.
(Score: 2) by Mr Big in the Pants on Saturday March 05 2022, @07:08PM
Haha.
Reverse cuck!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @07:48PM (2 children)
Boy, you really did wait it out.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @07:58PM (1 child)
Waiting works if you don't mind waiting a really long time, and hoping that they're at all decent even after all that. And not some man-hating, shrew that's damaged beyond all recognition.
I've long since lost any particular for empathy that wind up in repeated bad relationships. There's usually better options, and what better options there are often wind up becoming bad ones after all the rejection and abuse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2022, @08:30AM
I can really understand the psychology that fomented the man-hating shrew.
I am an older engineer. The aerospace company I worked for was sold off to a conglomerate, and I had to report to a MBA.
One can only take just so much from "privilege of rank" types before one develops a real sour attitude.
It used to be such a neat place to work when we had our customer right along side of us, not some liaison officer.
I love designing and building things, but really hate ass kissing circuses. But I also had to face the reality that the high up corporate executives would never see us low level engineers and technicians as anything more than expendable worker bees. Contracts and handshakes is where the prestige lays...did anyone even care if this thing we were building for our customer would work?
The land is now used to warehouse imported tire rims and ladies shoes
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Reziac on Sunday March 06 2022, @02:16AM (1 child)
So, you still didn't get to contribute to the gene pool.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2022, @02:24AM
Bad genes, not a good idea to contribute mine to the gene pool.
Way more mental illness in both sides of my family. I manage with only occasional bouts of minor depression, but some of the others have led hellish lives.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:21PM
...'girls always go for the bad boy' has some truth...
There's a reason for this.
When a bad guy treats his gal nice just once, unintentionally, to her it's like manna fell from heaven - he's her hero forever.
When a good guy treats his gal badly just once, unintentionally, to her his arse is instantly dispatched to the hottest ring of hell - she *knew* he was a bad guy all along, and this single isolated incident proves it for all eternity.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:31PM
if proven true we could conclude that the driving force behind all things bad with humanity (hunger, famine, war, etc) is because of ... wait for it ... waaaiiit... woman. boom, there you have it.
i vote robots for sexual health and artificial wombs for continuation of human kind. maybe we can combine the two into bioroids :D
also, more ot, some huxley in a book "brave new world" has the betas, the "agreeable class" and "soma"? would have been strange if the meaning of " being agreeable" would not mean what it means?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @03:30PM
If it's starting something from the ground up, then I doubt agreeableness is the main factor in success. Same for the military during an actual war, not during peacetime when sucking up is the biggest way to get ahead instead of success in war.
(Score: 5, Informative) by looorg on Saturday March 05 2022, @03:40PM (10 children)
It's a somewhat weird and complex question perhaps but what is success in life? It does seem a bit unclear. They are not really clear about it either from what I can tell. But from a portion of what they wrote they seem to believe, think or define it more or less as a matter of following the leader and trying desperately to fit in at any cost to yourself and whatever desires or aspirations you might have.
In other words more or less being a a serf to others. Suppress your own desires and wants or as they put it "self-transcendence", contentment, lower results emphasis and social integration. Be one with the hive mind and suppress your self and your own desires and you'll be a success in life. Or at least content with your station in life. Serve the master! Don't rock the boat peon! It has a certain 1984 vibe to it all.
Meanwhile in reality a lot of the people generally thought of as successes and at the top of the pyramids are people that tend to step on or over people left and right. Which would make them failures in life according to the study. Yet they are looked up to in some regard by society. Those poor failures with their millions of money and mansions. But you don't want that, those are failed people ...
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Gaaark on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:37PM (2 children)
My brother has a lot of money and "success" but also a failed marriage which is the opposite of what i have: who is more successful? We're both happy (at least he seems to be, who knows).
I'd say i'm more agreeable, he's more 'control'...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2022, @09:03AM (1 child)
I have seen way too many women get the bad boy, then find out later they make terrible husbands.
If it wasn't for all of our social safety net programs, you would see these women outside every store begging for the very kindness they previously were offered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 08 2022, @06:59PM
Ewww a misogynerd, quick get the baktine!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:40PM (1 child)
Survivorship bias is a thing, though, and that makes a big difference. You hear about the people who tried to get ahead by being jerks and succeeded in getting millions or even billions (Bill Gates comes to mind). You don't hear about the people who tried to get ahead by being jerks and got shunned and kicked out of whatever they were trying to be in charge of and end up as broke and bitter old people moping about how they coulda been somebody.
This comment also strongly suggests that you believe that you have to be a jerk or disagreeable in order to be successful. And in my experience, that's just not the case, at all. Some examples:
- At one point I got to know one of the top lawyers in my state, a guy the governor called up when he got into legal trouble, probably worth about 8 figures, and he was genuinely charming and friendly, and I got the impression that even professionally he was well-liked by the people he was arguing against because that helped with negotiations.
- I'm related to a Harvard professor (now retired), who has always been an absolute delight, has constantly tried to elevate and improve the lives of others, and did groundbreaking research in her field that's still being cited and used decades later.
- My parents knew a guy who was part of their community, really friendly and well-liked, who just really liked making a common consumer product, he started a business making it on a relatively small investment, made $50 million or so for himself and the business is still a fairly common brand today.
- I got to know someone who was one of the top religious leaders in his fairly large denomination, a genuinely good and decent man who maintained a presence of quiet but firm morality at least whenever I was around him, again well-liked by all who knew him, not rich but accomplishing everything he was trying to do.
- I've hung out with a fairly well-known author (hundreds of thousands if not millions of books sold) and a co-founder or leader in a couple of fairly large organizations with tens of thousands of members between them, and she's always been kind, calm, and interested in informing and illuminating as much as possible while also doing a lot of the nitty-gritty work nobody else wants to do.
These are all people who sure seem to be pretty darn agreeable, and also people who have been succeeding at doing exactly what they're trying to accomplish in their lives.
I'm also not convinced that people fairly well-known as being selfish jerks by the people who know them best, and also succeeded in getting what they thought they wanted, are happy. Like, Bill Gates has a ridiculous amount of money, sure, but he also can't keep his now-ex-wife happy and I'm also not entirely clear how many genuine friends he has.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:23PM
It's rarely hard to find counter-examples to almost anything, in this case of nice people that got ahead or managed to become successful. That isn't really the issue I would say. This is on or in general terms since it's a large N meta study. It's not specifics about some single individuals but generalizations. In that regard it's not hard to find lots of people that kept their head down and just tried to fit in, not rocking the boat so to speak. Questions is or was if that is success? Is existing success enough? That said is your life necessarily a failure if you didn't "become someone" (or however we should put it)? I mainly found that they are somewhat vague about that aspect of it all; what is success? Does everyone even want the same thing etc? Clearly they don't.
Who is more successful? The Jerk that had 10 offspring that lives on into the next generation or the genius that had none but did something nice for his fellow man? We might like to think it's the genius, but then from a biological perspective the genius here is an utter failure or an organism? It didn't reproduce into the next generation. But it sure "self-transcended", but at what cost?
But just as you pointed out a few nice and successful people I'm also fairly sure you could point out a similar amount of complete jerks and assholes that somehow managed to become successful and rich (or which ever criteria we are using here)? Or just can point out a bunch of jerks in general that clearly are not very agreeable or decided to "self-transcend" for the good of all mankind. I know a bunch of nice people that I would consider to be successful, I also know a bunch of assholes and jerks that are to or in some regard. Just as I know several jerky people that are bitter failures that now blame everything and everyone for their failures, then there are the struggling nice people that just can't ever seem to catch a break or get things done or in order. Doomed to being nice but epic failures?
But no I don't believe that you need to or have to be a jerk to get a head. But in general it seems easier to find people that have gotten ahead or are somewhat affluent (or however we once again should put it) that also tends to be or have jerk-like tendencies.
I guess if you just suppress enough wants and desires it's easier to see yourself as having achieved your goals or whatnot since you didn't have any or many.
Is Bill Gates a jerk? Lots of indicators seem to point in that direction. Do I know? No, not really. For one reason or another his now x-wife is clearly unhappy with him for some reason. But not unhappy enough to not take a large chunk of his fortune on her way out the door. I don't think that implies that Gates doesn't have friends. Even the most vile people tend to have friends. Even murdering bastards sometimes, or surprisingly often, have friends and family that they are very nice to and that likes them back.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:34PM (3 children)
In truth, we'd all be better off if we gave the exploiters the heave ho. There's a difference between being generally agreeable and being a door mat.
The sticking point is the would-be exploiters. They're not that good at it or they never had the opportunity, but they think if they toady up to the exploiters they might one day join their ranks (they won't, they will be door mats).
(Score: 1, Troll) by looorg on Saturday March 05 2022, @07:33PM (2 children)
In some general sure, we probably would be. But sometimes it's nice to have the jerkfaces around cause they tend to be the kind of people that gets shit done. Things nobody else wants to do but still has to be one. That said there are probably to many of them around to fill that niche.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2022, @09:08AM (1 child)
Maybe, but I know a few, and I can't stand to be around those privileged self-entitled assholes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2022, @09:13AM
Uh huh... to me, they are another Dr. Zachary Smith.
( Reference old 60's American TV sci-fi show )
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 05 2022, @10:11PM
"Life" is largely a social game. If you don't play nicely with others, you get locked up - or worse.
So, it makes sense that in reverse: playing nicely with others will come with rewards, to a point.
To the extent that these pseudo-soft-science psycho-social studies reach, agreeableness is indeed rewarded. Particularly agreeableness with persons "in power" over your personal rewards.
What this study doesn't extend to is the "in power" levels where psychopathy is rewarded. Of course, opportunities to play at those levels are rare, and usually granted by birth or rare^2 cases of luck.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @03:48PM
He died alone, no wife or children to remember him.
Nobody in the world was a fan of his.
He died penniless.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:11PM (13 children)
I'm generally successful in life, yet very disagreeable.
(Score: 0, Troll) by crafoo on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:33PM (12 children)
But why?
It's all lies. Equality is a lie. Being agreeable and successful is a lie. It's all about pushing feminine traits onto men while women adopt and claim the positive masculine traits as feminine. It's supremely confused and destructive.
Communists really can't give up the life of equality. They need it on a very personal level. This corrupts their entire view of the world. It's also responsible for the bad outcomes of their economic and social policies: they are not grounded in objective reality _at all_.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday March 05 2022, @05:12PM (2 children)
What exactly do you mean by "masculine" and "feminine" traits? And why are you completely convinced that those traits have something to do with gender?
As for being agreeable, I don't see why you think that necessarily has to do with equality. It's entirely possible to be a pretty agreeable leader of a hierarchy: They end up the leader because the people in the group they're leading like and trust them and think they're smart and capable. As long as they're making good decisions their followers are likely to continue to like and trust them, and if they do start screwing up their closest followers are likely to respond with friendly feedback so the leader can correct himself. Whereas a leader who tries to force his way into the front of the pack with threats tends to have followers who fear them, won't tell them when they've made a mistake, and thus is more likely to make a mistake that leads to disaster for the whole group.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @10:18PM (1 child)
What exactly do you mean by "masculine" and "feminine" traits? And why are you completely convinced that those traits have something to do with gender?
Oh FFS, another brainwashed woke "men and women are the same" twit.
First, your head must have been stuck up your ass all your life if you don't know what masculine and feminine traits are. No matter how often you plug your ears and cover your eyes trying to ignore it, sexual dimorphism is expressed physically, mentally, and behaviorly in mankind. Search engines have been around for over 25 years, I suggest you learn how to use one so you can look up stuff 'n' things.
Second, the expression of those traits depend upon the individual's sex. Gender was created by a 1960's pedophile who got an erect penis each time he made his two pre-puberty son's stick their dicks in each other's butt. Both sons committed suicide at a very early age. What a hero he must be for you woke idiots!
Thirdly, you could counter with "what about transgenders", but since they are 1% of the population they certainly are the outliers. There are exceptions to every rule. That doesn't make the first rule invalid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 08 2022, @07:01PM
I'm assuming everyone who knows you would pass by if they saw you passed out in a ditch. Or are there more Orcs where you come from?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:21PM (8 children)
There's medicine for your problem you know. Surprisingly, a lot of insurances cover it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:30PM (6 children)
LOL - GP has issues, including feminism and the emasculation of men. A woman's response is to sedate GP so he doesn't give a damn any more. That would be funny, but, we see millions of young men sedated into compliant zombies these days. The real problem is, when those zombies come off their drugs, cold turkey. A very large number of mass shooters are unzombified zombies.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @11:29PM
I think she meant, anti-psychotics.
The dude sounds a bit unhinged.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 06 2022, @12:26AM (3 children)
Your lack of commentary in the AirBNB post is telling. Best go make some shitpists so your account doesn't seem too suspicious. Also maybe look up Jesus and his core teachings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 06 2022, @12:31AM (2 children)
#1 Jesus didn't teach war.
#2 The US doesn't believe in Jesus - certainly not the progressive Democrat left.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday March 06 2022, @06:19AM (1 child)
They may not believe in his teachings, but their agenda certainly come closer to following them than anything on the right. The right, especially the Trump/DeSantis/Abbott/Scott/etc faction, are if anything christian supremacists. They tend to push policies that are the are the antithesis of Christianity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 08 2022, @03:01AM
Really? Like the number one commandment of Christianity: Believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, or else suffer Hell in the afterlife? Follow the commandments in the Bible, even the ones that aren't popular with secular society?
Christianity is not just feel-good, Hallmark card or yoga accessory shop slogans.
It is **incompatible** with an anything goes, it's all-good attitude.
I can clearly tell by the parent poster's ignorance about this that he is an atheist.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday March 06 2022, @04:45AM
I meant phosphodiesterase inhibitors actually :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @07:07PM
Wow! Really? You can get hemlock now?
(Score: 0, Troll) by crafoo on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:42PM (8 children)
LIES. Lies designed and perfected to deceive you and ruin your life. Being agreeable, if you are a man, will ensure a bad outcome for your life. It will not help you build positive and constructive relationships. Unsubstantiated lies even by their own data. You are the implement by which changes are made in the world, even in a feminist society. A tool being agreeable or not isn't helpful. A tool doing what it is told is what is needed. A tool that does what it's told, when it's told to do so. It would be so much more convienient if you were agreeable about being used as a tool your entire life, then thrown into the trash.
You are being programmed and conditioned to be a useful tool.
If you actually want to build constructive and positive relationships, do not be agreeable. Instead be honest, be forthright, be empathetic but always consider your self-interest first. Being agreeable is how women interact socially. Men have a different role in the world.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:53PM (1 child)
A slave is happier than his master. His master has a tough life.
Or, for those who read "Brave New World", I am glad to be a Beta. Alphas have to work so hard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:32PM
Freedom is oppression. Seriously, do a search for that phrase. It is Orwellian, but it's not Orwell.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:56PM
Gee, why don't you just get it out and tell us what you really think?<sarcasm>
Your life of self-interest sounds horrible to me.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Saturday March 05 2022, @05:25PM (2 children)
Except, of course, when it results in a good outcome for your life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @05:54PM
Agreeable in the streets, disagreeable in the sheets.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @10:13PM
The last study on agreeableness that I saw claimed that disagreeable people did far better when negotiating for pay increases or better conditions at work than agreeable people do. Since those pay rises come out of the bosses pockets it figures you'd be promoting agreeableness amongst the peasants.
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Sunday March 06 2022, @03:26AM
A or B, a or b.... such a hard choice.
But what if C?
I feel like what you're saying is that there are inconvenient truths that people are ignoring, and that makes you a blehuaethu. Sure, not going to disagree. (See? I'm being agreeable. :-)
Where tact(ics) might differ is you yourself... not correcting them. Don't help people who have not asked for help. (Similar to: don't help people who don't want help, but even more subtle.) Let them muddle through it, unless they ask for help. (Another kinda-sorta being agreeable.) You benefit in that you're not forcing anyone in any way, which is the disagreeable part, and you're allowing them to do whatever - the agreeable part. You're side-stepping the personal-pilled issue, which is compromising your own values.
So basically, let others be them, regardless of their faults. Don't correct them, and ignore their non-acceptance of inconvenient truths. In relationships, you will use each other to some degree - but keep that degree small, and truly appreciate the other, even when you (perhaps unknowingly) use them to get what you want/need. Acknowledge that you, as well, will be used, to your (hopefully very slight) detriment to get what your other needs. Do it, because your other needs that. Be agreeable. :-)
Really what the study says is: "Pro-social behavior leads to stronger social bonds," and, well, .... duh.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Monday March 07 2022, @06:09PM
That's not being agreeable, that's being submissive. Agreeable means kind, cooperative, considerate. Being agreeable doesn't mean one is also a doormat.
Being honest, forthright, and empathetic is by definition part of being agreeable. I agree that one should always consider one's self-interest, but one should not necessarily put it first. Being selfish is not a good way to build healthy relationships.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:36PM (3 children)
It's he morality of the peasant vs. the morality of the king.
People can only afford to disagree and assert their own will against others to the extent their power allows it.
Kings don't want confrontational peasants.
Peasants don't want to be ruled by a weak king who is too compliant to neighboring/enemy kingdoms.
"Yes, and..." is for the Roadrunner cartoon writing team and improv comedy troupes, not for leaders like Chuck Jones or Del Close themselves.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @10:04PM
Now you see the violence inherent in the system. Help, help I'm being violently disagreed with!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Sunday March 06 2022, @12:10AM (1 child)
You sure about the peasants caring [ozyandmillie.org] about who rules them?
(Score: 1) by Retian on Sunday March 06 2022, @12:11PM
Thanks for that blast from the past. Reminds me I'm overdue to give the series another read.
The one about Millie forming a book club is one of my single favorite strips of all time.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @11:14PM
It's true, nice guys finish first. It's just that you always hear about the 10% of the assholes out there. Signal-to-Noise ratio and all that.
Same in the "news" -- good acts are expected and get a thank you. Fuck ups by idiots get front page coverage.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by krishnoid on Sunday March 06 2022, @12:24AM
Nearly any problem can be described by a goal and a mix of un/limited resources. For those willing to share the limited resources (and eventually, the spoils), and to consume as much as you want of the unlimited ones, then pitch in towards the same goal, then "many hands make light work."
That is, until the limited resources and spoils [giantitp.com] become a gating factor. Just remember to stay on terror level orange (or higher) for marketing that keeps steering you towards the "artificial scarcity" concept.