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National character does not reflect mean personality trait levels in 49 cultures

Antonio Terracciano, +86 more
- 07 Oct 2005 - 
- Vol. 310, Iss: 5745, pp 96-100
TLDR
Perceptions of national character appear to be unfounded stereotypes that may serve the function of maintaining a national identity.
Abstract
Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a "kernel of truth," or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared them with the average personality scores of culture members assessed by observer ratings and self-reports. National character ratings were reliable but did not converge with assessed traits. Perceptions of national character thus appear to be unfounded stereotypes that may serve the function of maintaining a national identity.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

The Geographic Distribution of Big Five Personality Traits Patterns and Profiles of Human Self-Description Across 56 Nations

David P. Schmitt, +123 more
TL;DR: The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a self-report measure designed to assess the high-order personality traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI

Personality and Prejudice: A Meta-Analysis and Theoretical Review:

TL;DR: The effects of Agreeableness and Openness to Experience were robust and consistent across samples, although subtle moderating factors were identified, including differences in personality inventory (NEO Personality Inventory—Revised vs. Big Five Inventory), differences across prejudice domain, and cross-cultural differences in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism.
Journal ArticleDOI

Personality profiles of cultures: aggregate personality traits.

TL;DR: Aggregate scores on Revised NEO Personality Inventory scales generalized across age and sex groups, approximated the individual-level 5-factor model, and correlated with aggregate self-report personality scores and other culture-level variables, suggesting that aggregate personality profiles provide insight into cultural differences.
Journal ArticleDOI

Evidence for the social role theory of stereotype content: Observations of groups’ roles shape stereotypes.

TL;DR: Results demonstrate that when social groups were described with changes to their typical social roles in the future, their projected stereotypes were more influenced by these future roles than by their current group stereotypes, thus supporting social role theory's predictions about stereotype change.
References
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Book

The Nature of Prejudice

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the dynamics of prejudgment, including: Frustration, Aggression and Hatred, Anxiety, Sex, and Guilt, Demagogy, and Tolerant Personality.
Book

The Authoritarian Personality

TL;DR: The Authoritarian Personality "invented a set of criteria by which to define personality traits, ranked these traits and their intensity in any given person on what it called the 'F scale' (F for fascist)".
Journal ArticleDOI

Personality structure: emergence of the five-factor model

TL;DR: In this paper, the auteur discute un modele a cinq facteurs de la personnalite qu'il confronte a d'autres systemes de the personNalite and don't les correlats des dimensions sont analyses.
Book

Nature of Prejudice

Journal ArticleDOI

Gender Differences in Personality Traits Across Cultures: Robust and Surprising Findings

TL;DR: Primary analyses of Revised NEO Personality Inventory data from 26 cultures suggest that gender differences are small relative to individual variation within genders; differences are replicated across cultures for both college-age and adult samples, and differences are broadly consistent with gender stereotypes.
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