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Big Five personality traits have a decent association with social class (1). I think what the map is showing is that the social class split is uneven in Britain

Big Five personality traits have a decent association with social class (1). I think what the map is showing is that the social class split is uneven in Britain. Positive association with higher social class: Extraversion, Opennes and especially Conscientiousness. Negative association with higher social class: Neuroticism, Agreeableness. 1: Chapman. B. P., Fiscella, K., Kawachi, I., & Duberstein, P. R. (2010). Personality, socioeconomic status, and all-cause mortality in the United States. American Journal of Epidemiology, 171, 83–92.

arethuza 12y ago
My understanding is that social class is a lot more complex in the UK than in the US - particularly "upper class" doesn't mean "wealthy", at least traditionally. e.g. My wife had a relative who had millions in the bank but was resolutely and proudly working class. Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_the_United_Kingdom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_the_United_... Note that I am most definitely not trying to defend the UK class system - it is profoundly weird at times.
- agilebyte 12y ago
  Say Conscientiousness is about being organized and dependable. Would you say that higher social strata exhibit these characteristics, more so than in the lower echelons, even in UK?
  - arethuza 12y ago
    Well, I've never met someone from the upper class (i.e. aristocracy) - but I wouldn't say "organized and dependable" are the first words that come to mind when thinking about aristocrats.... :-) Actually, one notable example of viewing the working class as "organized and dependable" is Sam from Lord of the Rings - who is based on Tolkien's batmen from when he served on the Western Front as an officer (being middle class he was naturally an officer): “My ‘Sam Gamgee’ is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognized as so far superior to myself.” https://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/sam-gamgee-and-tolkiens-batmen/ https://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/sam-gamgee-and-to...

arethuza 12y ago

My understanding is that social class is a lot more complex in the UK than in the US - particularly "upper class" doesn't mean "wealthy", at least traditionally. e.g. My wife had a relative who had millions in the bank but was resolutely and proudly working class. Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_the_United_Kingdom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_the_United_... Note that I am most definitely not trying to defend the UK class system - it is profoundly weird at times.

agilebyte 12y ago
Say Conscientiousness is about being organized and dependable. Would you say that higher social strata exhibit these characteristics, more so than in the lower echelons, even in UK?
- arethuza 12y ago
  Well, I've never met someone from the upper class (i.e. aristocracy) - but I wouldn't say "organized and dependable" are the first words that come to mind when thinking about aristocrats.... :-) Actually, one notable example of viewing the working class as "organized and dependable" is Sam from Lord of the Rings - who is based on Tolkien's batmen from when he served on the Western Front as an officer (being middle class he was naturally an officer): “My ‘Sam Gamgee’ is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognized as so far superior to myself.” https://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/sam-gamgee-and-tolkiens-batmen/ https://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/sam-gamgee-and-to...