Which one of the Big Five personality traits most negatively impacts friendships

Anyone who has had close friendships knows that while these relationships are rewarding, they often require hard work to maintain, and some people have more success than others at keeping such friendships up. Who then, are the people who manage to maintain friendships — and what behaviors and processes lead to high levels of friendship satisfaction?

In a 2015 study published in the European Journal of Personality, researchers Robert Wilson (University of California, Davis), Kelci Harris (Washington University in St. Louis), and APS Board Member Simine Vazire (University of California, Davis) examined the relationships among different aspects of personality and friendship satisfaction.

Studies examining relationship satisfaction traditionally have focused on romantic and marital relationships and shown that people who display the personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness have more satisfying relationships, while those high in the personality trait of neuroticism do not.

The few studies that have examined the relationship between personality and friendship satisfaction have found that the traits of extraversion and agreeableness are associated with having more friends, closer friendships, and attaining a higher social status; however, few studies have examined the influence relationship between the traits of conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism and friendship satisfaction.

To better understand how personality influences friendship satisfaction, the researchers had participants complete an in-lab personality questionnaire, had them to rate their level of friendship satisfaction and life satisfaction, and asked them to nominate six friends to rate their personality. Participants then completed surveys four times a day for 14 days outside of the lab. These surveys asked participants to report on their personality states (i.e., what they were like at that particular time; e.g., rude, happy, considerate), their behaviors, and their social interactions during specified hour blocks spaced throughout the day.

From these measures, the researchers computed participants’ Big Five personality traits (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness), their friendship-role personality (i.e., their personality state when interacting with friends), and the quality and quantity of their interactions with friends.

They found that while the personality traits of extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were associated with increased friendship satisfaction, neuroticism was associated with lower friendship satisfaction and openness was not related to friendship satisfaction at all.

Although the quantity and quality of social interactions were found to be associated with friendship satisfaction, neither was found to account for the association between personality and friendship satisfaction. These results suggest that there are individual differences in friendship satisfaction and that these differences are a result of differences in personality and not differences in the quality or quantity of interactions.

This research adds to the limited work examining friendship satisfaction. The researchers encourage others to continue examining the interactions among personality, interpersonal processes, and friendship satisfaction in a variety of populations.

Reference

Wilson, R. E., Harris, K., & Vazire, S. (2015). Personality and friendship satisfaction in daily life: Do everyday social interactions account for individual differences in friendship satisfaction? European Journal of Personality, 29, 173–186.

You didn't just happen to choose your awesome best friends.

There's actually research to back up the fact that we favor specific personality traits when it comes to our friendships.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis did a study that shed light on what personality traits are most important when picking friends. It was based on a popular personality construct in modern psychology called the "Big 5".

In this construct, the five main traits are agreeableness, outgoingness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness.

Of the five, the first three listed affect friendships positively, the study says. Being neurotic affects friendships negatively, and apparently, openness doesn't matter much.

Here's how they came to this conclusion:

The researchers had 434 students take a personality survey, and then had them rate how satisfied they are with life and friendships.

Then they rated six of their friends' personalities. Sounds like a fun survey to me!

After compiling the information, they found that participants rated the positive traits the highest, when it comes to friends.

It kind of makes me wonder who in Taylor Swift's famous girl squad has these traits, and who doesn't.

Obviously, T-Swift is pretty conscientious when it comes to her friends. She never forgets a birthday.

It totally makes sense. People who are agreeable tend to be more kind and generous. We all want friends who are givers.

Outgoingness — or extroversion — is important because we obviously want friends who like to be around other people. Isn't that the whole point of having friends?

Conscientiousness is kind of surprising, but when you think about it, of course we'd rather have friends who can remember birthdays and more or less have their lives together. A conscientious friend is less likely to be late.

Neuroticism, or how sensitive you are, was rated lower because people who are extremely neurotic tend to be drama queens or demand a ton of attention.

I'm also surprised that openness didn't matter much, but to each his own.

Personally, I'd rather have a friend who is open to jumping in the car with me and heading out of town for the weekend instead of doing the same old bar hopping thing.

Next time you move to a new city or are in a situation where you're making new friends, you now know which traits to watch out for if you want a top-notch squad.

Citations: The Personality Traits That Make for Better Friends (Science Of Us)

Which personality trait most negatively impacts friendships?

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