Openness to experience

Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model^[1][2] Openness involves active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity.^[3] A great deal of psychometric research has demonstrated that these qualities are statistically correlated. Thus, openness can be viewed as a global personality trait consisting of a set of specific traits, habits, and tendencies that cluster together.

Openness tends to be normally distributed with a small number of individuals scoring extremely high or low on the trait, and most people scoring near the average.^{[citation needed]} People who score low on openness are considered to be closed to experience. They tend to be conventional and traditional in their outlook and behavior. They prefer familiar routines to new experiences, and generally have a narrower range of interests.

People who are open to experience are no different in mental health from people who are closed to experience. There is no relationship between openness and neuroticism, or any other measure of psychological wellbeing. Being open and closed to experience are simply two different ways of relating to the world.

Measurement

The NEO PI-R personality test measures six facets or elements of openness to experience:

1. Fantasy - the tendency toward a vivid imagination and fantasy life.
2. Aesthetics - the tendency to appreciate art, music, and poetry.
3. Feelings - being receptive to inner emotional states and valuing emotional experience.
4. Actions - the inclination to try new activities, visit new places, and try new foods.
5. Ideas - the tendency to be intellectually curious and open to new ideas.
6. Values - the readiness to re-examine traditional social, religious, and political values.

Openness has also been measured, along with all the other Big Five personality traits, on Goldberg's International Personality Item Pool (IPIP). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) measures the preference of "intuition," which is related to openness to experience.

According to research by Sam Gosling, it is possible to assess openness by examining people's homes and work spaces. Individuals who are highly open to experience tend to have distinctive and unconventional decorations. They are also likely to have books on a wide variety of topics, a diverse music collection, and works of art on display.^[4]

Psychological aspects

Openness to experience correlates with creativity, as measured by tests of divergent thinking.^[5] Openness is also associated with crystallized intelligence, but not fluid intelligence.^[6] These mental abilities may come more easily when people are dispositionally curious and open to learning. However, openness is only weakly related to general intelligence^{[citation needed]}. Openness to experience is related to need for cognition^{[citation needed]}, a motivational tendency to think about ideas, scrutinize information, and enjoy solving puzzles.

There are social and political implications to this personality trait. People who are highly open to experience tend to be politically liberal and tolerant of diversity.^[7][8] As a consequence, they are generally more open to different cultures and lifestyles. They are lower in ethnocentrism and right-wing authoritarianism.^[9]

Openness to experience was found to be associated with life satisfaction in older adults after controlling for confounding factors.^[10]

Genes and physiology

Openness to experience, like the other traits in the five factor model, is believed to have a genetic component. Identical twins (who have the same DNA) show similar scores on openness to experience, even when they have been adopted into different families and raised in very different environments.^[11] One genetic study with 86 subjects found Openness to experience related to the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism associated with the serotonin transporter gene.^[12]

Higher levels of openness have been linked to activity in the ascending dopaminergic system and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Openness is the only personality trait that correlates with neuropsychological tests of dorsolateral prefrontal cortical function, supporting theoretical links among openness, cognitive functioning, and IQ.^[13]

Geography

An Italian study found that people who lived on Tyrrhenian islands tended to be less open to experience than those living on the nearby mainland, and that people whose ancestors had inhabited the islands for twenty generations tended to be less open to experience than more recent arrivals. Additionally, people who emigrated from the islands to the mainland tended to be more open to experience than people who stayed on the islands, and than those who immigrated to the islands.^[14]

People living in the eastern and western parts of the United States tend to score higher on openness to experience than those living in the midwest and the south. The highest average scores on openness are found in the states of New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington, and California. Lowest average scores come from North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Alabama, and Wisconsin.^[15]

Drug use

Psychologists in the early 1970s used the concept of openness to experience to describe people who are more likely to use marijuana. Openness was defined in these studies as high creativity, adventuresomeness, internal sensation novelty seeking, and low authoritarianism. Several correlational studies confirmed that young people who score high on this cluster of traits are more likely to use marijuana.^[16][17] More recent research has replicated this finding using contemporary measures of openness.^[18]

A 2011 study found Openness (and not other traits) was increased by psilocybin^[19].

See also

• Big Five personality traits
• Personality
• Trait theory

References

1. ^ Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48, 26-34.
2. ^ McCrae, R. R. & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the Five-Factor Model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60, 175-215.
3. ^ Costa, P. T. & McCrae, R. R. (1992). NEO personality Inventory professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
4. ^ Gosling, S. (2008). Snoop: What your stuff says about you. New York: Basic Books.
5. ^ McCrae, R. R. (1987). "Creativity, divergent thinking, and openness to experience". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52 (6): 1258–1265. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1258. 
6. ^ Geary, D. C. (2005). The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 1591471818. 
7. ^ McCrae, R. R. (1996). Social consequences of experiential openness. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 323-337.
8. ^ Jost, John T. (2006). The end of the end of ideology. American Psychologist, 61, 651-670.
9. ^ Butler, J. C. (2000). "Personality and emotional correlates of right-wing authoritarianism". Social Behavior and Personality 28: 1–14. doi:10.2224/sbp.2000.28.1.1. 
10. ^ Stephan, Yannick (2009). "Openness to experience and active older adults' life satisfaction: A trait and facet-level analysis". Personality and Individual Differences 47 (6): 637–641. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.05.025. 
11. ^ Jang, K. L., Livesly, W. J., & Vemon, P. A. (September 1996). "Heritability of the big five personality dimensions and their facets: A twin study". Journal of Personality 64 (3): 577–592. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1996.tb00522.x. PMID 8776880. 
12. ^ Scott F. Stoltenberg, Geoffrey R. Twitchell, Gregory L. Hanna, Edwin H. Cook, Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Robert A. Zucker, Karley Y. Little (March 2002). "Serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism, peripheral indexes of serotonin function, and personality measures in families with alcoholism". American Journal of Medical Genetics 114 (2): 230–234. doi:10.1002/ajmg.10187. PMID 11857587. 
13. ^ Colin G. DeYoung, Jordan B. Peterson and Daniel M. Higgins (2005). "Sources of openness/intellect: cognitive and neuropsychological correlates of the fifth factor of personality". Journal of Personality 73 (4): 825–858. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00330.x. PMID 15958136. 
14. ^ Camperio Ciani, A. S., Capiluppi, C., Veronese, A., Sartori, G. (2006). The adaptive value of personality differences revealed by small island population dynamics, European Journal of Personality, 21, 3-22.
15. ^ Stephanie Simon (2008-09-23). "The United States of Mind. Researchers Identify Regional Personality Traits Across America". WSJ.com. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122211987961064719.html?mod=yhoofront.  Original research article: Peter J. Rentfrow, Samuel D. Gosling and Jeff Potter (2008). "A Theory of the Emergence, Persistence, and Expression of Geographic Variation in Psychological Characteristics". Perspectives on Psychological Science 3 (5): 339–369. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00084.x. 
16. ^ Victor, H. R., Grossman, J. C., & Eisenman, R. (1973). Openness to experience and marijuana use in high school students. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41, 78-85.
17. ^ Eisenman, R., Grossman, J. C., & Goldstein, R. (1980). Undergraduate marijuana use as related to internal sensation novelty seeking and openness to experience. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 36, 1013-1019.
18. ^ Flory, K., Lynam, D., & Milich, R. (2002). The relations among personality, symptoms of alcohol and marijuana abuse, and symptoms of comorbid psychopathology: Results from a community sample. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 10, 425-434.
19. ^ http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/09/28/0269881111420188