Finnish men’s perceptions of their own social skills, such as self-confidence, sociability, and leadership motivation, improve steadily across birth cohorts. There is a very clear difference between those born in the late 1970s and those born in the early 1960s.
Higher test scores in the standardized personality test administered to conscripts are associated with higher earnings later in life, which suggests that changes in these personality traits have economic significance.
A team of researchers analysed the results of personality tests administered to 420,000 men born between 1962 and 1976 who were enlisted in the Finnish Defence Forces.
Researchers measured the direction and significance of the changes in test scores by using them to predict individual earnings at age 30–34. They find that the average personality traits of men born in 1976 predict earnings that are 12 % higher than those predicted by the average personality traits of men born in 1962.
Many earlier studies have documented a secular increase in intelligence test scores across birth cohorts.
"We show that there is a similar trend in how personality traits evolve across birth cohorts", says Matti Sarvimäki, one of the authors of the study, and a Senior Researcher at the VATT Institute for Economic Research.
The research,
The research team consisted of Markus Jokela from the University of Helsinki, two authors from the VATT Institute for Economic Research Tuomas Pekkarinen and Matti Sarvimäki, Marko Terviö from Aalto University, and Roope Uusitalo from the University of Jyväskylä.
Further information: Markus Jokela, University of Helsinki,