These 3 Personality Traits Affect What You Earn — but Only After Age 40

We often hear about the power of personality, and how some traits are beneficial for our careers while others are more harmful. For example, we know that being more conscientious (hard-working, driven, reliable, and organized) is associated with better job performance, and that being nice (more agreeable) does not pay off in wages. But it is less clear when these personality traits matter most for our careers — are they more important earlier on, or in the middle? — and who benefits most from them.

我们经常听说性格的力量，以及某些性格特质如何有助于事业发展，而另一些则对事业有害。如，都知道，越认真严谨（工作努力、奋发向上、可信赖、有条理），工作表现就越好，讨人喜欢（更随和一些）却并不能带来工资的提高。但是，这些性格特征什么时候对我们的职业生涯最重要，是在职业生涯的早期，还是在中期，这一点就不那么清楚了。还有就是，哪类人群最受益？

In a recent paper, I investigate these questions by looking at the connection between personality traits and lifetime earnings among men at different ages. I find that men’s earnings are not affected by personality at all in the beginning of their careers, but that men who are more conscientious and extroverted, as well as less agreeable, reap large benefits between their 40s and 60s. The evidence also points to a subgroup of men who benefit from these traits more than twice as much as others: those with a graduate education.  The overall effect of personality on lifetime earnings is large – in the same order of magnitude as the average lifetime earnings difference between high school and college graduates in my sample: over $1.2 million.

为了解答这些疑惑，在最近的一篇论文中，我研究了不同年龄段男性的性格特质和终生收入之间的关系。我发现，在职业生涯初期，男性的收入根本不会受到性格的影响，但是那些更认真和更外向，以及不那么随和的男人，他们会在40—60岁时因性格而获得巨大的收益。这些证据还指向了一个小的男性群体——那些受过研究生教育的人，他们因这三大性格特征所获得的收益是其他群体的两倍以上。性格对终生收入的整体影响非常大，我的样本显示，是否具备这三大性格特征的男性之间平均终生收入差距丝毫不逊于高中毕业生和大学毕业生之间的差距：都超过120万美元。

I used data from the Terman study, one of the longest running studies in psychology that examines the development of gifted individuals since 1922. It has followed over 1,000 men and women in California who were selected for having IQs of at least 140 (the top 0.5% of the population). It is probably the only study that has U.S. data on earnings throughout a lifetime, which allowed me to relate early measures of personality to annual earnings from age 18 to 75. I focused here on the results for men (595 total), because women’s professional opportunities in this cohort were so limited.

我使用的是特曼（Terman）研究的数据，该研究自1922年开始跟踪研究天才儿童成长，是迄今为止最长的心理学追踪研究之一。它追踪研究了加利福尼亚州的1000多名男女，他们的智商至少达到140（占总人口的0.5%）。在这里，我关注的是男性群体的研究结果（总数为595人），因为女性在这一群体中的职业机会实在是有限。

I constructed annual earnings measures from retrospective questions in questionnaires that were given every 5-10 years. Personality information came from participants’ parents and teachers, who rated children’s extraversion and openness to experience (a measure of curiosity and originality) when they were about 10 years old, as well as from participants themselves, who rated themselves on the traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability at around age 30. There is also information on participants’ background from their parents, who described their education, employment, finances, as well as the child’s health growing up.

我根据每5-10年一次的调查问卷中回顾性问题，构建了年收入衡量标准。其中，性格特征信息一是来自于调查对象的父母和老师，由他们评价调查对象10岁左右时的外向度和经验开放度（好奇心和独创性的衡量标准）；二是来自于调查对象本人，由他们对自己在30岁左右时的认真严谨度、随和度以及情绪稳定度等性格特征进行评价。此外，调查对象的父母会对调查对象的教育水平、就业状况、财务状况以及成长过程等背景资料进行描述。

The benefit of linking earnings later in life to personality measured at a young age is that it makes us more confident that the association between personality traits and earnings did not arise because someone who got a lucky draw with high income became more extroverted as a result. Instead, we can interpret the association as personality influencing earnings. This approach relies on the fact that while personality can change over time, personality relative to our peers is quite stable (i.e., being the most conscientious person among your peers remains robust over time).

我将调查对象后半生的收入与其年轻时的个性关联起来，这样做的好处是，我们可以更加确定，个性特征与收入之间的相关性不会出现在那些因为中大奖、获得高收入从而性格变得外向的调查对象身上。我们对这种相关性的解释是：个性影响收入，而非收入影响个性。这种方法依赖于这样的事实：虽然人们的性格可能会随着时间的推移而改变，但在同龄人中，他的性格特征还是相当稳定的（例如，某人是同龄人中最认真严谨的人，这一点是不容易随时间推移而改变的）。 

When and where does personality matter?

To analyze how people’s lifetime earnings are influenced by their personality traits, I statistically compared men with equal IQ, parental characteristics, and childhood conditions (including finances and health), at each age. I attributed the remaining differences in earnings of otherwise equal men to differences in scores on personality traits.

为了分析性格是如何影响终生收入，我选择智商、父母的情况及童年状况（包括财务和健康状况）等方面都相同的调查对象，再对他们各个年龄段的数据进行比较。

I found that in early years, earnings were no different for men with strong personality traits. At around age 30, a gap emerged, as men who were more conscientious, extroverted, and less agreeable started earning more. These gains from conscientiousness and extraversion (between $10-20,000 annually) fully unfolded in the prime working years, between the ages of 40 and 60.

我发现对于有着显著性格特征的人来说，其早年的收入和别人没有什么不同。但在30岁左右，差距出现了，那些认真严谨、外向、包括不太随和的男人开始赚更多的钱。在40-60岁这一最佳工作年龄段，因为认真严谨和外向而获得的收益（每年10-20000美元）则完全显现出来。

Researchers have not seen this kind of hump-shaped pattern yet, because most do not separate different age groups. But if we look at data of very young workers, we could erroneously conclude that personality traits do not matter for earnings. Instead, the results here indicate that the main advantages from strong personality traits arise to advanced-level workers. You can imagine why – for example, consider how a manager’s personality would have a stronger impact on the productivity of his team than that of an entry-level employee. The large late-life effects also demonstrate that the intensity and length of one’s working life –both of which tend to be influenced by personality—influence earnings.

研究人员之所以还没有发现这种驼峰形状的图案，是因为大多数人并没有将不同的年龄组分开。如果我们只看年轻人的数据，就会得出一个错误的结论：个性特征与收入没有多大关系。然而研究结果却表明，资深员工的性格优势很明显。你可以想想其中的原因——例如，相较初级员工，管理者的性格特征对其团队效率影响要更大。个性差异对后半生的巨大影响也表明，一个人职业生涯的强度和长度——这两者往往受到个性的影响——也影响着收入。

How does this difference in annual earnings add up over a lifetime? Consider two men in the Terman study, who are equal on all background characteristics and all traits, except for extraversion. The man who is average on this trait will earn $600,000 more over a lifetime than his more introverted peer (whose extraversion is, say, in the bottom 20% of the distribution). This effect size corresponds to about 15% of lifetime earnings. The magnitude of this effect is equally large for conscientiousness, which isn’t surprising given other research: conscientious men receive higher wages for being more productive on the job. They are also more likely to obtain higher education, which in turn boosts earnings. Furthermore, individuals that are more conscientious tend to lead longer and healthier working lives, and therefore accumulate higher lifetime earnings.

这种年收入差距是如何在一生中累积起来的？以特曼（Terman）研究中的两名男性为例，他们除了在性格外向程度上有所不同外，背景以及其它特征都是相同的。具有典型外向特征者一生收入，要比其具有内向特征的同龄人（比如说，其外向度排在最底部的20%）多出60万美元。这一性格差异所导致的终生收入差距大约15%，同样，是否认真严谨而产生的终生收入差距也是15%。考虑到其他研究结果，这也就不足为奇了：认真严谨者，由于工作效率更高，获得的工资也就更高。同时，认真严谨的性格特征使得他们获得高等教育的可能性更大，这又反过来提高他们的收入。此外，认真严谨者，其职业生涯往往更长，也更为健康，因此也就积累了更高的终生收入。

I also found that more agreeable men, who tend to be friendly and helpful to others, have significantly lower earnings than less agreeable men. The man who is very agreeable (in the top 20%) will earn about $270,000 less over a lifetime than the average man.

我还发现，比起不太随和的男性，和蔼可亲、乐于助人的男性的收入要低得多。与普通人相比，那些非常随和（排名前20%）的男性一生大约少挣27万美元。

IQ is also significantly positively associated with lifetime earnings in this sample, even though one can only compare very-high-IQ individuals to even-higher-IQ individuals in Terman. A 10-point increase in IQ is associated with about $200,000 higher lifetime earnings. Interestingly, emotional stability and openness to experience were not significantly related to lifetime earnings in this sample.

在此样本中，智商与终生收入之间还是呈现出显著的正相关性。智商每提高10%，就意味着终身收入会增加约20万美元。有趣的是，在这个样本中，情绪稳定性、经验开放性与终生收入没有明显的关系。 

Next, I compare men with the same background and traits at the same education level to see whether the influence of traits depends on education. It turns out that highly educated men benefit more than twice as much from these three personality traits (conscientiousness, extraversion, and low agreeableness) than less educated men. For example, when comparing two men with a bachelor’s degree, the introvert (bottom 20% of extraversion) will earn about $290,000 less than his peer with average extraversion. This earnings difference increases to about $760,000 when we compare an introvert to someone at the average extraversion when both hold a Master’s or doctorate.

接下来，我分析比较了具有相同背景、家庭特征以及学历的男性，看看性格对于收入的影响是否取决于教育程度。事实证明，相比学历较低的男性，具备这三大性格特征（即认真严谨、外向、不太随和）学历较高的男性终生收入超过了前者的两倍。例如，同样是拥有学士学位的两名男性，内向者（外向度位于底部的20%）的收入要比与其同龄的典型外向者约少29万美元。而同样是具有硕士或博士学位的两个人，内向者与外向者的收入差距则增加到76万美元左右。

In economics, we would attribute this to complementarities in production: two types of capital (soft-skill-human capital and education) are worth more together than the sum of their parts. It also means that someone very extroverted or conscientious stands a lot more to gain from higher education than someone who does not have these strong skills.

我们将这种现象归结为经济学上所谓的生产互补性，即两种资本（软技能人力资本和教育资本）组合在一起所创造的价值，要大于这两种资本各自单独所创造的价值的总和。这也意味着，一个非常外向或认真严谨的人，如果受过高等教育，他的获得的收益远远多于那些没有受过高等教育的人。

Of course the high-IQ individuals of the Terman sample are unique. So how much do these findings apply to the majority of us today? This depends on whether careers develop in a similar way now as they did back then. We have reason to believe that the basic mechanisms that determine which skills drive earnings – such as productivity, promotions, and health behaviors – are still quite similar. And they seem to be. In fact, the personality traits that have the strongest association with lifetime earnings in Terman are exactly the same traits that are found to be most important for wages among today’s workers.

当然，特曼（Terman）样本中的高智商个体是独一无二的。那么，对今天的大多数人来说，这些发现还有没有应用价值？这就要取决于现在的职业发展方式是否和当年一样。我们有理由相信，决定人们收入的基本机制——诸如工作效率、职场晋升及健康行为等因素影响收入高低——那时和现在仍然非常相似，看上去也确实如此。事实上，在特曼（Terman）研究中，与终生收入相关性最强的个性特征，正是对当今工薪族收入影响最大的个性特征。

This research gives us a good summary of the possible channels through which personality traits can influence our careers. Conscientiousness and extraversion not only affect on-the-job productivity directly, but they can also increase lifetime earnings indirectly by affecting behavior and the length and intensity of our working lives. Age-by-age analyses over the lifetime show that even if earnings differences between young workers are small today, we should expect them to grow significantly as they advance in their careers.

性格可能通过哪些方式来影响我们的事业？这项研究为我们提供了一个很好的总结。认真严谨或者外向不仅直接影响我们工作时的生产力，而且还可以通过影响行为及职业生涯的长度和强度，从而间接地影响我们的终生收入。对调查对象一生的逐年分析表明，即使今天年轻的工薪族收入差距很小，我们也应该可以预料到，随着他们在职业上的不断发展，其收入差距也会越来越明显。