The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next regular seminar, which will be held as a zoom session on Ocotber, 9th, at 03:30 p.m. CET (04:30 p.m. Moscow time, GMT+3). Michael Mikov, PhD, LCSR visiting specialist, will deliver a report "On the validity and utility of aggregate personality profiles for cultural comparisons: How do they differ from dimensions of culture and why?".

To participate, please, register via the link.

Abstract

Aggregate national personality profiles (ANPP) have been used to explain important national sociocultural differences, relevant in international business, including corruption and innovation rates. However, some studies challenge the ANPP's external validity, showing that their effect disappears after controlling for dimensions of culture. Using published data, this study addresses both the internal and external validity of ANPP. The 30 aggregate NEO-PI-R facets (Allik et al., 2017) and the 24 aggregate HEXACO facets (Lee & Ashton, 2020) yield uninterpretable principal components, rather than the expected FFM and HEXACO structures, although an EXACO structure (without H) is recoverable with a creative approach.  After controlling for the two cultural dimensions in the Minkov-Hofstede model, the ANPP from the largest-ever Big Five study (Obschonka et al., 2023), and the aggregate HEXACO (Lee & Ashton, 2020), have very few and very weak effects on a published selection of 25 national indicators, such as gender inequality, educational achievement, political and economic freedom, innovation, corruption, industrial fatalities, homicide rates, and more. The ANPP's poor internal and external validity can be explained by the individual-level focus of personality models, a method that fails to capture the most relevant national cultural differences of modern times.

Everyone interested is invited!

Working language is English.