
Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf] - kierkegaard7
http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~rcfraley/Hudson%20and%20Fraley%20-%20Volitional%20personality%20trait%20change%20-%20JPSP2015.pdf
======
volgo
Read through the paper. It doesn't reveal anything really surprising, but it's
a start. Conclusion was:

\- Most people want to change their personality

\- People with personalities that are considered "negative" by society (ex:
introversion) wanted to become more extroverted

\- People that wanted to change their personality, did change their
personality slightly, and self reported daily behaviors that worked toward the
goal (ex: “I smiled and laughed with others,” “I mixed well at a social
function”)

\- Personality at the start and the end were self reported, giving way to
bias.

~~~
twobyfour
Are they changing their _personality_ or are they changing their _behaviors_?
I would think of the personality as the predisposition to certain behaviors.

You can change your behaviors to differ from those you're predisposed to; but
it takes more conscious effort to maintain those behaviors than it does to
maintain the ones you are predisposed to.

And changing those behaviors doesn't count as changing your personality,
though it may change some people's perception of your personality. Changing
behaviors is something we all do at least situationally (even the most
cheerful, boisterous person will generally manage to be reasonably subdued at
a funeral). That doesn't mean we're changing our personalities every time we
walk into a funeral home.

~~~
aalleavitch
If you condition yourself to more regularly exhibit a certain behavior, how is
that different from changing your predisposition towards that behavior?
Certainly, new habits can be formed and over time people come to exhibit new
behaviors reflexively if they've made a habit out of them. Some habits may be
harder to form than others, and one's environment will always have a major
impact on which habits they're able to form, but there doesn't appear to be a
strict limit on one's ability to alter their own behavior (even if there may
be a healthy limit).

~~~
klibertp
I don't know what can change the nature of a man, but I think simply changing
your behavior is not enough to do so.

While it certainly is possible to form new habits, but as long as they go
against your nature the price to pay for this is high: you could cultivate a
neurosis or depression by doing so.

~~~
zuzuleinen
"While it certainly is possible to form new habits, but as long as they go
against your nature the price to pay for this is high: you could cultivate a
neurosis or depression by doing so."

Can you please elaborate on this?

------
themodelplumber
I'm a personality type coach and I help people implement the kinds of changes
described in the paper. There are many different models that deal with this
kind of change. But taking one step back, I think it should be made more clear
up front that "having a desire to change one's personality traits" itself is a
trait. There is no need to pressure (most) people to change, and many good
people feel a strong pressure to change just by being on the internet. Some
seem to have a natural desire to change. They are self-improvers by nature.
Some are curious, more open in general. They try this or that and wonder how
life would change if they were more of an introvert, or more conscientious.
Others are pushed into change, brought to their knees, so to speak, by
patterns of poor outcomes in their lives.

One of the often-unspoken realities here is that this growth and change will
cause anxiety directly. It's observable in any living organism. (Now think
about New Year's resolutions...they can be real anxiety spikers) If any really
pleasing dopamine reward is to come of this process in humans, its full
manifestation is often very time-delayed as the change process itself takes
its course. So depending on the traits and their role in the trait-changer's
own systems, models, and beliefs, it is helpful to identify pathways that can
involve the trait-changer's strengths and yield some increased leverage. For
example, "being open to _what_ is less stressful than being open to _that
thing I can't typically stand being open to_?" There's this blended approach.

Beyond traits, I find that typologies and archetypes are very helpful in
establishing a quick and dirty template for change. If you identify as a
"type" that finds benefit from developing cleverness, even if you yourself
aren't very clever _right now_, we may see some surprising success if we try
some exercises to identify and harness a latent cleverness in service of your
goals. If you are a natural idealist, an idealistic princess who befriends all
the little forest creatures, that's actually a very helpful model to examine
as well. The story has been shared across cultures for many centuries, and
it's a matter of running down the list of type attributes and noting the
deltas with regard to your current life. I call my own method Type / Trait
Interleave and so far I've been happy with the outcomes for my clients.

With traits we quickly understand the contextual you and your contextually-
variant patterns. With type we get at questions of your core self and begin to
understand how your contextually-variant patterns could be sabotaging or
benefiting some other system functioning in your life. Thanks op for the
thought-provoking post, I didn't expect to see it here. :-)

~~~
EGreg
Given your description of your job, I have a quick question:

I have found that when I speak, I rarely command attention and captivate as
some others do. Probably something in my speech patterns. Perhaps they are
slightly more apologetic / geeky / nice than others. People may interrupt me
or turn away, even people who respect me.

When I do get rapt attention, such as teaching a class, I get an impostor
syndrome because I'm not that used to it. I don't let it show - and I finish
my thoughts. But I feel my speech is more rambling and unfocused than it
should be. I have so many asides that I want to get to, and I like to speak
using true sentences so I hedge what I say sometimes, and other times don't
make overly ambitious claims.

Is there a way I can improve this? What do you see in your experience?

~~~
Cthulhu_
Try and make your sentences short and to the point. Take one of the paragraphs
you spoke, then repeat it over and over and over again until you're at the
point and avoided the tangents. I'm no expert but I think that's also why your
colleagues stop listening, because you don't get to the point. Avoid fillers
too - uhs and ums, stuttering, stop-words, etc - and try to focus on bringing
your point across in a single, firmly worded sentence.

So taking your one sentence:

> I have found that when I speak, I rarely command attention and captivate as
> some others do. Probably something in my speech patterns. Perhaps they are
> slightly more apologetic / geeky / nice than others. People may interrupt me
> or turn away, even people who respect me.

You could rephrase (and speak) this as:

> When I speak, I rarely command attention and captivate as some others do.
> People interrupt me or turn away, even people who respect me.

People have a short attention span. I myself tend to mostly ignore this one
colleague I have because pretty much half of what he says is filler, like, a
ramp-up to his point ("so uhh, basically, like"), his main point (stuttering
and lots of uhs), and end-filler ("you know?"). Mind you that he's not a
stutterer as such, he just needs to make noises while he's trying to think of
what to say next (like uhs). Not speaking in his native language is also a
factor there.

TL;DR: Firm, short, unapologetic statements. "We should do this" instead of
"Uh, guys, excuse me but, like, I think we should sorta lean towards this?"

~~~
peterwwillis
This might help too. IEEE Resources for Engineers: Write Clearly and Concisely
[http://sites.ieee.org/pcs/communication-resources-for-
engine...](http://sites.ieee.org/pcs/communication-resources-for-
engineers/style/write-clearly-and-concisely/)

------
Houshalter
The most interesting table in all of personality research:
[https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/asch...](https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/aschwanden-
datalab-facebook-personality2.png?w=575&quality=90&strip=info)

This is taken from correlations with facebook likes. There's a lot of
interesting observations here. For instance, introversion correlates very
strongly with "nerd culture" stuff. Openness seems to strongly correlate with
left or right politics. Emotionally stable people seem to like sports and
outdoor activities (adding to a weird theory that lack of sunlight and
exercise causes depression.)

~~~
Erlich_Bachman
There is nothing weird in theory that lack of exercise causes depression. The
human body needs physical activity, it does not feel as good without it. You
don't have to try 10000 people for years to know that, you can do it at home
in a week. While it might not be causing depression instantly, feeling bad in
your physical body certainly doesn't help depressive tendencies.

Also lack of sunlight means less Vitamin D production. It's a big problem in
northern countries where people have to take Vitamin D supplements.

------
cJ0th
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ― Henry
Ford

I think this is quite on the money. The problem is that many of us don't
manage to think "you can". For one thing, many hold kind of fatalistic beliefs
and feel powerless. Others suffer from over-confidence. That's not really
thinking "you can" but delusion. I could imagine that this is a nature &
nurture thing and that nurture would be enough for most people if only they
could find them-selves in an environment that's right for them. The problem
is, however, that we still kinda suck at bringing the right people together.

------
ivanhoe
In my own experience, you can teach yourself to be a bit more extrovert for
instance, but the change is not permanent and you tend to slide back into your
"defaults" very quickly when you stop actively caring about it (e.g. find
yourself in a very stressful or low energy period). Very much like fitness, it
requires the regular practice to keep it.

------
cik2e
Just to clarify a common misconception introversion != shyness. It's a matrix
of shy/not shy and extravert/introvert. Introverts prefer to spend more time
solo, but certainly don't have to be shy. Not shy introverts tend to be the
power players in society. And there is such a thing as a shy extravert. You
all probably know one or can remember them from your earlier years. The
wallflowers who go to every social gathering but don't really interact with
others. As a not shy introvert, I can tell you that I enjoy and need the
occasional social gathering, but too much time with others gets draining.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
I'd go further - exhibited personality is essentially acting. You can get
better at playing parts. There is probably a baseline of the 'real you' that
happens when you're not 'on', and we can assert that the real you never
changes.

But functionally, almost everybody can learn to exhibit personality traits
that benefit them personally and 'commercially'. You can be on for the
interview, the meeting, the one-on-one. And you can conserve your energy when
working at your desk or at home.

------
aj7
You can execute patches but they don’t run as fast or as reliably as your
underlying personality. Over a long period of time, the patches can become
habituated and a kind of hybrid personality results. The underlying code
remains.

~~~
chriswait
Did you find that the generalisation of this model of software development was
supported/not-supported in some way by the results being discussed here?

~~~
khazhoux
What a backhanded way of telling him to shut up!

1) This is a tech-focused forum.

2) It was perfectly obvious that he was being clever.

3) The analogy was quite amusing.

4) The analogy does ring true... and even this research paper concedes the
point that personal change is difficult and has proven elusive.

5) I imagine that if a wealth of actionable research results existed on this
matter, that personal change and growth would have become more accessible
already.

------
maram
"We are what we repeatedly do." -Aristotle

~~~
adjkant
But that doesn't change your tendencies and dispositions necessarily, as I'm
sure this paper is examing. I think there's a bit of fudging often when
discussing personality on exactly what personality is.

~~~
Ultimatt
Depends take imagination. Im sure there is variance in how imaginative people
are intrinsically. But I bet the biggest difference is time dedicated to
embracing that trait and expanding ability. Are you naturally a daydreamer, or
are you hyper focussed on the here and now and perceive taking time for pure
imagination as wasteful or worse puerile. Just a change in attitude and time
spent might be all thats needed.

------
dandare
Tangential question - the study calls itself longitudinal and was conducted
over 16 weeks. I was not familiar with the word so I googled longitudinal:

> A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research
> design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g.,
> people) over long periods of time, often many decades (i.e., uses
> longitudinal data).

------
AElsinore77
An interesting angle on studying personality is through the lens of research
on psychoactive substances. A study on magic mushrooms several years ago found
that "just one strong dose of hallucinogenic mushrooms can alter a person's
personality for more than a year and perhaps permanently." Previously, it was
posited that: "personality rarely changes much after the age of 25 or 30.....
This is one of the first studies to show that you actually can change adult
personality.."

This raises the follow up question: what is changing? Is there a fundamentally
different reaction to the same situation, or is there instead a different
interpretation of the situation which is what is leading to a different
reaction?

Cognitive behavioral therapy, the "most widely used evidence-based practice
for improving mental health," provides evidence that the latter is absolutely
a possible answer. "CBT is a psychotherapy that is based on the cognitive
model: the way that individuals perceive a situation is more closely connected
to their reaction than the situation itself."

Based on this, it seems very possible at least one way people can "choose" to
change their personality (as defined by their reactions (feelings, thoughts,
and actions) to situations) is to seek to find ways to change the way they
percieve the world.

Sources: [https://www.livescience.com/16287-mushrooms-alter-
personalit...](https://www.livescience.com/16287-mushrooms-alter-personality-
long-term.html)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy)
[https://beckinstitute.org/get-informed/what-is-cognitive-
the...](https://beckinstitute.org/get-informed/what-is-cognitive-therapy/)

------
dschuetz
This paper is dangerous. It lets an ignorant mind assume that personality is a
choice in some way, so a person with unpopular (e.g. more personal)
personality traits will need to change those to more popular and sociable
ones. People refusing to do so will be considered selfish and will be
punished/excluded from society. Welcome to Orwellia!

~~~
xor1
>People refusing to do so will be considered selfish and will be
punished/excluded from society

There's nothing wrong with expecting someone to change their personality. Even
if you want to claim that it's not a choice, it _is_ a choice to at least
_attempt_ to change your personality, and that's the very least we should
expect from anyone who has negative personality traits.

~~~
dschuetz
You certainly mean _behavior_. Personality traits aren't as easily switched on
and off. But you're actually confirming what I just criticized about this
paper.

~~~
adjkant
A hard second to this. I would make a clear distinction between personality
traits and actions.

This will mix subjects and I don't know enough to plant a flag on this hill
let alone die on it, but imagine the moral serial killer who has urges to kill
but never acts on them. They can't change who they are (as an adult as far as
I know from current research), but they can try their best to affect actions.
But their traits underneath are not changing.*

* Ignore the actual claims re serial killers, changing, and how that actually probably isn't personality traits, or maybe it is. Point being, it highlights a key difference between the state / biology of a person and how they act in the world.

~~~
xor1
>This will mix subjects and I don't know enough to plant a flag on this hill
let alone die on it, but imagine the moral serial killer who has urges to kill
but never acts on them. They can't change who they are (as an adult as far as
I know from current research), but they can try their best to affect actions.
But their traits underneath are not changing.*

I firmly believe there is a way to change/cure those traits/urges given modern
means, while still allowing the subject to possess complete freedom and
agency.

~~~
adjkant
Do you have anything to back up that belief? That's an incredibly strong
unsubstantiated belief as presented.

------
BurningFrog
This is based on the "Big Five" personality traits that are fairly well
established: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and
Neuroticism or OCEAN.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits)

------
stevenwoo
Was listening to a talk on the radio while driving home today by a couple of
psychologists/college professors, Southwick and Charney, and it was
specifically about resilience but has some applicability to this topic - and
they had suggestions for judging your quality of life and how to improve it,
and how to make you or your children more prepared for challenges in life.
Found the website about it and they recorded it in 2013:
[http://www.harvard.com/event/steven_m._southwick_and_dennis_...](http://www.harvard.com/event/steven_m._southwick_and_dennis_s._charney/)

Found this publication from them from five years ago.
[http://science.sciencemag.org/content/338/6103/79](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/338/6103/79)

------
hasbot
I was curious on what personality traits are and found this:
[http://nobaproject.com/images/shared/images/000/001/623/orig...](http://nobaproject.com/images/shared/images/000/001/623/original.png)

From that, it's obvious that some personality traits can be changed (e.g.
being punctual and neat) but others will be very hard (e.g. curious,
imaginative, self-disciplined, feeling inadequate).

------
YCode
Using Stranger Than Fiction as an example in this paper rubs me the wrong way,
maybe because it also accounts for about a third of the conclusion.

I like that movie, but it doesn't really add anything to the paper and even if
it does I feel like this is the equivalent of saying "In Harry Potter a boy
finds out he's special and goes on a magical adventure. Can we all find out we
are special?"

It's more rhetoric than academic.

------
LearnerHerzog
"You can have more than you've got because you can become more than you are.
On the other side of that coin: If you don't become more than you are, you'll
always have what you've always got" -Jim Rohn

I believe that anybody who has put in any effort into bettering themselves
knows for a fact one can completely change his/her own self-perception, and
in-turn, their personality.

------
rbanffy
On the part of actually changing those traits, one could attempt to use a very
precise radiotherapy machine combined with FMRI to find and kill the parts of
your brain that bother you.

I'm not really sure I'd want to try to literally hack my brain this way. I
have a lot of traits I don't like (hey, I'm posting this here while I should
be working... Look! Shiny!) I understand they are what makes me the person my
family loves (although some may say it's an acquired taste)

------
aetherspawn
You can, many religious evangelisers are born introverts and self-adjust to
extraverts by talking to large numbers of people spontaneously (forced, at
first).

------
kristofferR
This super-inspiring video from Simple Programmer (awesome self improvement
aimed at programmers) is really relevant:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOym9N6SZR4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOym9N6SZR4)

People can clearly change their personality, it's just so difficult that most
people don't try or give up when they fail.

~~~
Spearchucker
That guy, how he dresses, the wristbands, the pictures on the wall, steam-punk
lamp... Most contrived thing I've seen in a VERY long time. Which is a pity in
that I needed to forcibly focus myself on what he was saying, in spite of my
bias. Because maybe he might have had something useful to say.

~~~
kristofferR
That is frankly one of the weirdest things I've ever heard.

You can't listen to someone because his style and choice of decorations is
different? At least you recognize that you're biased, but you should really
try to fix that part of your personality.

You'll miss out on a lot in life if you immediately disregard things and
people just because they're slightly different than what you're used to.

------
justanotherjoe
You probably can, but the key word here is "change". I believe you can somehow
"change" personality. You can't however "add" new personality. Changing
personality requires sacrifice, abandoning the old self and many things that
you currently love. And that is truly hard. At least that's what i believe.

------
goshx
If anyone here is looking to change something in themselves, I recommend this
book (or audiobook, in my case) "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself" by Dr.
Joe Dispenza.

Sometimes just by being conscious and watching yourself as an external
spectator of your own thought can do wonders.

------
qwerty456127
> Traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Stability, Openness

Obviously these traits can change. Although for extraversion it is
questionable (extraversion is not a merit, it's more like a gender kind of a
"trait"), development of agreeableness, conscientiousness, stability and
openness is what defines a character maturity of adult/adolescent person.

------
erric
People don’t change, they merely reveal themselves.

------
chenster
No, you can't. Really.

However, your characters can be trained.

