Faculty
Social Science
Supervisor Name
Dr. Julie Aitken Schermer
Keywords
Personality, Supernumerary Personality Inventory, Altruism, Prosocial Behaviour
Description
Research investigating individual differences in personality and altruistic behaviour has focused predominantly on traits described within the Five-Factor Model (FFM). The objective of the present study was to explore the role of age, gender, and 10 personality traits outside of the common FFM in predicting altruism. An online survey including the Supplementary Personality Inventory (Paunonen, 2002), the Self-Report Altruism Scale (Rushton et al., 1981), and the Compassionate Altruism Scale (O’Connor et al., 2015) was completed by 256 participants. Regression analysis revealed the SPI to account for significant variance in both measures of altruism. Specifically, age, integrity, and risk-taking positively predicted scores on the Self-Report Altruism Scale. Humorousness positively predicted compassionate altruism towards family, while compassionate altruism towards strangers was positively predicted by religiosity, and negatively predicted by femininity. Overall, the results highlight the importance of incorporating additional dimensions of personality into explorations of altruism and related prosocial behaviours. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Schermer and the USRI team for the opportunity to complete this project.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Poster
Included in
Predicting Altruism with Personality “Beyond” the Big Five
Research investigating individual differences in personality and altruistic behaviour has focused predominantly on traits described within the Five-Factor Model (FFM). The objective of the present study was to explore the role of age, gender, and 10 personality traits outside of the common FFM in predicting altruism. An online survey including the Supplementary Personality Inventory (Paunonen, 2002), the Self-Report Altruism Scale (Rushton et al., 1981), and the Compassionate Altruism Scale (O’Connor et al., 2015) was completed by 256 participants. Regression analysis revealed the SPI to account for significant variance in both measures of altruism. Specifically, age, integrity, and risk-taking positively predicted scores on the Self-Report Altruism Scale. Humorousness positively predicted compassionate altruism towards family, while compassionate altruism towards strangers was positively predicted by religiosity, and negatively predicted by femininity. Overall, the results highlight the importance of incorporating additional dimensions of personality into explorations of altruism and related prosocial behaviours. Limitations and future directions are discussed.