'Universal' Personality Traits Aren't Actually Universal http://www.businessinsider.com/universal-personality-traits-are-not-2013-1/comments en-us Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 Thu, 13 Mar 2014 15:59:57 -0400 Megan Gannon http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ede6eaecad041871000005 yisterwald Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:53:46 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ede6eaecad041871000005 Yes. Please edit. Proofreading before posting is a good idea. http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ede06eecad048b6100000f fattsmann Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:26:06 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ede06eecad048b6100000f Either the researchers (disclaimer: I am a researcher, though not of any related field) were not being clear in their results or the reporting is not as clear as it could be. A passage of the text reads: "The team instead discovered evidence of a pair of broad traits that could be considered the Tsimane "Big Two." The researchers labeled one prosociality — socially beneficial behavior, which among the Tsimane, looks like a mix of items under the extroversion and agreeableness portions of the Big Five. The other trait is industriousness, which blends the efficiency, perseverance and thoroughness found in the conscientiousness portion of the Big Five, the researchers said." This is like saying, "Words are more complex than letters but are formed by letters." That doesn't mean the letters don't exist. Often a language will words that describe certain combinations of feelings/actions that don't necessarily exist in other languages. That doesn't mean that the basic underlying feelings/actions don't exist. So if a trait seems to combine 3 sub-traits, that doesn't mean the sub-traits are invalid in anyway. http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50eddef4ecad04355f000017 laugh Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:19:48 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50eddef4ecad04355f000017 Story contains duplicative text. As an example: "Psychologists can get a pretty clear picture of someone's personality by evaluating to what degree they express traits known as the "Big Five" — openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These factors are thought to be rooted in biology and to transcend cultural differences, but a new study of an indigenous Bolivian society shows the traits might not be universal after all." This appears in the middle of the article. Yet it is also the lead paragraph.