The Big 5 at Work Part 4: Openness/Intellect
This article explores what Openness/Intellect is, how it functions within the Big Five personality framework, and why it matters in both personal and professional contexts.
Key Takeaways on Openness/Intellect
- Openness/Intellect reflects how people engage with new information – through both perception and abstract reasoning.
- High levels of Openness/Intellect are linked to creativity, learning agility, and strong performance in complex roles.
- Individuals high in Openness/Intellect tend to value diversity, show empathy, and adapt well to change.
- When thoughtfully applied, FFM-based assessments can enhance hiring and development decisions.
Background on Personality
Personality is our typical way of thinking, feeling, and acting. It is a critical part of what makes us who we are as individuals and has a significant impact on how we live our lives. In fact, it’s so powerful it has been shown to predict what most people would consider to be some of the most important outcomes imaginable in life: health, happiness, and longevity.
Personality also affects how we show up to work each day. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, it also predicts a countless number of outcomes that are of critical importance to organizations and individuals, including job performance, employee engagement, burnout, turnover, and leadership effectiveness, just to name a few.
Problems with Common Personality Measures
An important caveat to personality’s predictive power, however, concerns how it is measured. Unfortunately, the most common method used in the workplace gets it all wrong. The MBTI, DiSC, True Colors, and Enneagram err in two key ways. First, they incorrectly treat personality as a categorical variable when it is actually a continuous one. Second, their conceptualization of personality is based on anecdotal rather than scientific evidence. For example, the MBTI (Myers-Briggs) was created by a mother and daughter who spent two decades “type watching.”
The Five-Factor Model of Personality
On the other hand, the most widely researched model of personality, known as “The Big Five” or the Five-Factor Model (FFM), was not discovered anecdotally, but through empirical methods using a statistical procedure called factor analysis. This technique identified five broad and continuous domains: Openness/Intellect, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Steadiness. Moreover, each of these domains is hierarchically structured and multi-faceted, consisting of two more specific aspects directly beneath the broader domain, and an even larger number of highly specific facets beneath those.
Background on Openness/Intellect
Openness/Intellect is defined as the “ability and desire to explore the world cognitively” (p. 371). This exploration can take the form of engaging with sensory information through perception, which reflects the Openness aspect, or engaging with abstract information through reasoning, which reflects the Intellect aspect. Individuals who score high on the domain of Openness/Intellect are more sensitive to the reward value of information, which acts as an intrinsic motivator to engage with it. As such, they tend to be curious, imaginative, and perceptive. Compared to those who score lower, they process information in a more flexible and complex manner. They are also more sensitive to the reward value of information, which acts as an intrinsic motivator to engage with it.
Cognitive Mechanism: Latent Inhibition
One of the mechanisms by which Openness/Intellect exerts its effects is through decreased latent inhibition. Latent inhibition is an adaptation our brains have developed to prevent irrelevant stimuli from entering consciousness. Think about it – there’s so much happening around us and so many things we could focus on at any given moment (sounds, sights, thoughts, feelings, and more). Yet, much of it isn’t very meaningful. To avoid becoming unnecessarily preoccupied, distracted, or overwhelmed by things that don’t really matter, our brains rely on a preconscious mechanism that filters out the “noise” from our environment. While this helps conserve mental resources, it also blocks information from reaching consciousness. Importantly, information that was irrelevant in the past may suddenly become useful in new situations. Individuals high in Openness/Intellect are better able to capitalize on these opportunities because they can take in more information from their environment than those who are lower in this trait.
Openness/Intellect and Work Outcomes
Openness/Intellect as a Predictor of Creativity
Because of the above, individuals who are highly open to engaging deeply with information develop a much richer and more sophisticated understanding of issues, which affords them a unique perspective. This is why Openness/Intellect is a strong predictor of creativity. If innovation is the lifeblood of a company, then organizations would be well-served by hiring individuals who score high on trait Openness/Intellect.
Job Complexity and Performance
But it’s not just about creativity. Openness/Intellect is an even stronger predictor of overall job performance than the domain of Conscientiousness when the job is highly complex (e.g., lawyers, doctors, engineers). Among other things, it predicts success in such roles because it supports knowledge acquisition, insight, and the ability to maintain a broad perspective. All of these capabilities enhance an individual’s ability to determine the right course of action when dealing with complex problems.
The Link Between Openness and Intelligence
Perhaps not surprisingly, Openness/Intellect is also the Big Five domain most strongly correlated with general intelligence, which happens to be the single most potent predictor of job performance, especially in roles of high complexity. One link between Openness/Intellect and intelligence is that individuals who are skilled at performing a behavior are more likely to enact that behavior. When repeated over time, this behavior contributes to the development of a trait. In other words, those who can think abstractly and reason well (i.e., have high intelligence) are more likely to engage with complex information. Repeated engagement with that kind of information leads to knowledge acquisition, which supports crystallized intelligence.
Openness/Intellect and Learning
In general, Openness/Intellect supports learning through cognitive exploration and active engagement with information. The Openness aspect has been shown to be a strong predictor of implicit learning (i.e., the ability to unconsciously recognize patterns in the environment), which is similar to intuition or “practical intelligence.” Alternatively, the Intellect aspect has been shown to be a strong predictor of explicit learning, which can be thought of as “book smarts.”
Predicting Training Success and Expatriate Adjustment
Given their connection to learning, it should come as no surprise that the overall domain of Openness/Intellect has been shown to be a strong predictor of training performance. It also has a moderately strong relationship with expatriate adjustment.
How Openness/Intellect Relates to Diversity and Empathy
If your organization values diversity, you would also be well-served by selecting individuals high in Openness/Intellect, as research has shown this domain to be a strong predictor of Universal Diversity Orientation (e.g., how important it is to be around different types of people and cultures). This aligns with findings from another study, which showed that low Openness/Intellect is associated with negative attitudes toward diversity.
These outcomes are likely due, in part, to the cognitive flexibility and desire to explore the world that individuals high in Openness/Intellect possess. These traits foster curiosity and open-mindedness. Another contributing factor may be that those high in Openness/Intellect are better able to engage in the perspective-taking form of empathy and also tend to score higher on the compassion form of empathy as well.
Other Factors to Consider
It is important to note that while the Openness aspect is correlated with the Intellect aspect (which is why they both fall under the broader trait), that correlation is far from perfect. It is entirely possible to be very high on one and very low on the other (and the same holds true for the facets), or to fall anywhere in between. When this occurs, problems can arise.
When Openness and Intellect Are Out of Sync
In particular, individuals who score high on the Openness aspect but low on the Intellect aspect may tend to make connections between unrelated things and see patterns where none truly exist, a tendency known as apophenia. They may struggle to “filter out the noise” and distinguish meaningful information from irrelevant data. As a result, they often make connections that do not make logical sense to others and may communicate in a way that is difficult to follow. They can also become easily preoccupied, which leads to poor listening and misunderstandings in conversations.
Why a Holistic View is Essential
This example highlights the importance of not only considering an individual’s standing on a single trait, but also evaluating their scores across the other facets, aspects, and domains of the Big Five. These traits can interact in ways that either mitigate or exacerbate certain tendencies. Moreover, there is much more to a person than just their personality. Therefore, personality scores should never be used in isolation to determine someone’s suitability for a role or to guide their development.
The Importance of Thoughtful Application
That said, a Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality measure is a critical component of any well-designed and comprehensive selection and development system. When used properly, it can lead to powerful, positive results.
Keith Francoeur, Psy.D.