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.

我們經(jīng)常聽(tīng)說(shuō)性格的力量，以及某些性格特質(zhì)如何有助于事業(yè)發(fā)展，而另一些則對(duì)事業(yè)有害。如，都知道，越認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)（工作努力、奮發(fā)向上、可信賴、有條理），工作表現(xiàn)就越好，討人喜歡（更隨和一些）卻并不能帶來(lái)工資的提高。但是，這些性格特征什么時(shí)候?qū)ξ覀兊穆殬I(yè)生涯最重要，是在職業(yè)生涯的早期，還是在中期，這一點(diǎn)就不那么清楚了。還有就是，哪類人群最受益？

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.

為了解答這些疑惑，在最近的一篇論文中，我研究了不同年齡段男性的性格特質(zhì)和終生收入之間的關(guān)系。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，在職業(yè)生涯初期，男性的收入根本不會(huì)受到性格的影響，但是那些更認(rèn)真和更外向，以及不那么隨和的男人，他們會(huì)在40—60歲時(shí)因性格而獲得巨大的收益。這些證據(jù)還指向了一個(gè)小的男性群體——那些受過(guò)研究生教育的人，他們因這三大性格特征所獲得的收益是其他群體的兩倍以上。性格對(duì)終生收入的整體影響非常大，我的樣本顯示，是否具備這三大性格特征的男性之間平均終生收入差距絲毫不遜于高中畢業(yè)生和大學(xué)畢業(yè)生之間的差距：都超過(guò)120萬(wàn)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）研究的數(shù)據(jù)，該研究自1922年開(kāi)始跟蹤研究天才兒童成長(zhǎng)，是迄今為止最長(zhǎng)的心理學(xué)追蹤研究之一。它追蹤研究了加利福尼亞州的1000多名男女，他們的智商至少達(dá)到140（占總?cè)丝诘?.5%）。在這里，我關(guān)注的是男性群體的研究結(jié)果（總數(shù)為595人），因?yàn)榕栽谶@一群體中的職業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)實(shí)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.

我根據(jù)每5-10年一次的調(diào)查問(wèn)卷中回顧性問(wèn)題，構(gòu)建了年收入衡量標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。其中，性格特征信息一是來(lái)自于調(diào)查對(duì)象的父母和老師，由他們?cè)u(píng)價(jià)調(diào)查對(duì)象10歲左右時(shí)的外向度和經(jīng)驗(yàn)開(kāi)放度（好奇心和獨(dú)創(chuàng)性的衡量標(biāo)準(zhǔn)）；二是來(lái)自于調(diào)查對(duì)象本人，由他們對(duì)自己在30歲左右時(shí)的認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)度、隨和度以及情緒穩(wěn)定度等性格特征進(jìn)行評(píng)價(jià)。此外，調(diào)查對(duì)象的父母會(huì)對(duì)調(diào)查對(duì)象的教育水平、就業(yè)狀況、財(cái)務(wù)狀況以及成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程等背景資料進(jìn)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).

我將調(diào)查對(duì)象后半生的收入與其年輕時(shí)的個(gè)性關(guān)聯(lián)起來(lái)，這樣做的好處是，我們可以更加確定，個(gè)性特征與收入之間的相關(guān)性不會(huì)出現(xiàn)在那些因?yàn)橹写螵?jiǎng)、獲得高收入從而性格變得外向的調(diào)查對(duì)象身上。我們對(duì)這種相關(guān)性的解釋是：個(gè)性影響收入，而非收入影響個(gè)性。這種方法依賴于這樣的事實(shí)：雖然人們的性格可能會(huì)隨著時(shí)間的推移而改變，但在同齡人中，他的性格特征還是相當(dāng)穩(wěn)定的（例如，某人是同齡人中最認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)娜耍@一點(diǎn)是不容易隨時(shí)間推移而改變的）。?

When and where does personality matter?

性格何時(shí)何地重要？

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.

為了分析性格是如何影響終生收入，我選擇智商、父母的情況及童年?duì)顩r（包括財(cái)務(wù)和健康狀況）等方面都相同的調(diào)查對(duì)象，再對(duì)他們各個(gè)年齡段的數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行比較。

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.

我發(fā)現(xiàn)對(duì)于有著顯著性格特征的人來(lái)說(shuō)，其早年的收入和別人沒(méi)有什么不同。但在30歲左右，差距出現(xiàn)了，那些認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)、外向、包括不太隨和的男人開(kāi)始賺更多的錢。在40-60歲這一最佳工作年齡段，因?yàn)檎J(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)和外向而獲得的收益（每年10-20000美元）則完全顯現(xiàn)出來(lái)。

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.

研究人員之所以還沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)這種駝峰形狀的圖案，是因?yàn)榇蠖鄶?shù)人并沒(méi)有將不同的年齡組分開(kāi)。如果我們只看年輕人的數(shù)據(jù)，就會(huì)得出一個(gè)錯(cuò)誤的結(jié)論：個(gè)性特征與收入沒(méi)有多大關(guān)系。然而研究結(jié)果卻表明，資深員工的性格優(yōu)勢(shì)很明顯。你可以想想其中的原因——例如，相較初級(jí)員工，管理者的性格特征對(duì)其團(tuán)隊(duì)效率影響要更大。個(gè)性差異對(duì)后半生的巨大影響也表明，一個(gè)人職業(yè)生涯的強(qiáng)度和長(zhǎng)度——這兩者往往受到個(gè)性的影響——也影響著收入。

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.

這種年收入差距是如何在一生中累積起來(lái)的？以特曼（Terman）研究中的兩名男性為例，他們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，要比其具有內(nèi)向特征的同齡人（比如說(shuō)，其外向度排在最底部的20%）多出60萬(wàn)美元。這一性格差異所導(dǎo)致的終生收入差距大約15%，同樣，是否認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)而產(chǎn)生的終生收入差距也是15%。考慮到其他研究結(jié)果，這也就不足為奇了：認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)者，由于工作效率更高，獲得的工資也就更高。同時(shí)，認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)男愿裉卣魇沟盟麄儷@得高等教育的可能性更大，這又反過(guò)來(lái)提高他們的收入。此外，認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)者，其職業(yè)生涯往往更長(zhǎng)，也更為健康，因此也就積累了更高的終生收入。

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.

我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，比起不太隨和的男性，和藹可親、樂(lè)于助人的男性的收入要低得多。與普通人相比，那些非常隨和（排名前20%）的男性一生大約少掙27萬(wàn)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.

在此樣本中，智商與終生收入之間還是呈現(xiàn)出顯著的正相關(guān)性。智商每提高10%，就意味著終身收入會(huì)增加約20萬(wàn)美元。有趣的是，在這個(gè)樣本中，情緒穩(wěn)定性、經(jīng)驗(yàn)開(kāi)放性與終生收入沒(méi)有明顯的關(guān)系。?

Who benefits most?

誰(shuí)受益最大？

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.

接下來(lái)，我分析比較了具有相同背景、家庭特征以及學(xué)歷的男性，看看性格對(duì)于收入的影響是否取決于教育程度。事實(shí)證明，相比學(xué)歷較低的男性，具備這三大性格特征（即認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)、外向、不太隨和）學(xué)歷較高的男性終生收入超過(guò)了前者的兩倍。例如，同樣是擁有學(xué)士學(xué)位的兩名男性，內(nèi)向者（外向度位于底部的20%）的收入要比與其同齡的典型外向者約少29萬(wàn)美元。而同樣是具有碩士或博士學(xué)位的兩個(gè)人，內(nèi)向者與外向者的收入差距則增加到76萬(wàn)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.

我們將這種現(xiàn)象歸結(jié)為經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)上所謂的生產(chǎn)互補(bǔ)性，即兩種資本（軟技能人力資本和教育資本）組合在一起所創(chuàng)造的價(jià)值，要大于這兩種資本各自單獨(dú)所創(chuàng)造的價(jià)值的總和。這也意味著，一個(gè)非常外向或認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)娜?，如果受過(guò)高等教育，他的獲得的收益遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)多于那些沒(méi)有受過(guò)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.

當(dāng)然，特曼（Terman）樣本中的高智商個(gè)體是獨(dú)一無(wú)二的。那么，對(duì)今天的大多數(shù)人來(lái)說(shuō)，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)還有沒(méi)有應(yīng)用價(jià)值？這就要取決于現(xiàn)在的職業(yè)發(fā)展方式是否和當(dāng)年一樣。我們有理由相信，決定人們收入的基本機(jī)制——諸如工作效率、職場(chǎng)晉升及健康行為等因素影響收入高低——那時(shí)和現(xiàn)在仍然非常相似，看上去也確實(shí)如此。事實(shí)上，在特曼（Terman）研究中，與終生收入相關(guān)性最強(qiáng)的個(gè)性特征，正是對(duì)當(dāng)今工薪族收入影響最大的個(gè)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.

性格可能通過(guò)哪些方式來(lái)影響我們的事業(yè)？這項(xiàng)研究為我們提供了一個(gè)很好的總結(jié)。認(rèn)真嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)或者外向不僅直接影響我們工作時(shí)的生產(chǎn)力，而且還可以通過(guò)影響行為及職業(yè)生涯的長(zhǎng)度和強(qiáng)度，從而間接地影響我們的終生收入。對(duì)調(diào)查對(duì)象一生的逐年分析表明，即使今天年輕的工薪族收入差距很小，我們也應(yīng)該可以預(yù)料到，隨著他們?cè)诼殬I(yè)上的不斷發(fā)展，其收入差距也會(huì)越來(lái)越明顯。

Miriam Gensowski｜文

Miriam Gensowski是哥本哈根大學(xué)經(jīng)濟(jì)系助理教授，曾在芝加哥大學(xué)獲得博士學(xué)位。她從應(yīng)用微觀經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)和人格心理學(xué)的角度研究人類不平等的起源和后果。

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