TY - JOUR

T1 - The Big Five model in rural Southeast Asia

T2 - Validation, stability, and its role in household income*

AU - Bühler, Dorothee

AU - Sharma, Rasadhika

AU - Stein, Wiebke

N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) via the Thailand Vietnam Socio Economic Panel (TVSEP) (Project No. 283672937). All data can be accessed via the TVSEP project team. Data were analyzed using Stata (Version 14) and all do‐files will be made available on the authors’ websites. This study was not preregistered. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

PY - 2023/11/2

Y1 - 2023/11/2

N2 - Objective: We investigate the applicability of the Big Five model in rural Southeast Asia and thereby challenge recent concerns about the validity of the model in developing countries. Method: We use a novel data set on personality traits from rural Thailand and Vietnam (N = 3811 individuals). In our analysis, we (i) assess the factor structure of the data, (ii) test the internal consistency of the items, (iii) compare the traits across two consecutive survey waves, and (iv) employ regressions to demonstrate the economic relevance of the traits. Results: The results demonstrate a five-factor structure that fits the Big Five model. We observe changes in personality traits over time but Cohen's d coefficients only range between 0.06 and 0.21. The average rank-order stability, measured by the test–retest correlation of the Big Five between the two consecutive waves, lies at 0.21. Individual changes in personality traits over time relate to experienced shocks and appear to be largely independent of age, gender, and education. We further find that openness and emotional stability positively correlate with rural incomes. Conclusions: While there is skepticism, pertaining to the use of personality trait models in developing countries, our study demonstrates that their importance and usage cannot be rejected.

AB - Objective: We investigate the applicability of the Big Five model in rural Southeast Asia and thereby challenge recent concerns about the validity of the model in developing countries. Method: We use a novel data set on personality traits from rural Thailand and Vietnam (N = 3811 individuals). In our analysis, we (i) assess the factor structure of the data, (ii) test the internal consistency of the items, (iii) compare the traits across two consecutive survey waves, and (iv) employ regressions to demonstrate the economic relevance of the traits. Results: The results demonstrate a five-factor structure that fits the Big Five model. We observe changes in personality traits over time but Cohen's d coefficients only range between 0.06 and 0.21. The average rank-order stability, measured by the test–retest correlation of the Big Five between the two consecutive waves, lies at 0.21. Individual changes in personality traits over time relate to experienced shocks and appear to be largely independent of age, gender, and education. We further find that openness and emotional stability positively correlate with rural incomes. Conclusions: While there is skepticism, pertaining to the use of personality trait models in developing countries, our study demonstrates that their importance and usage cannot be rejected.

KW - Big Five model

KW - income determination

KW - personality traits

KW - Southeast Asia

KW - TVSEP

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148096792&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/jopy.12813

DO - 10.1111/jopy.12813

M3 - Article

C2 - 36660803

AN - SCOPUS:85148096792

VL - 91

SP - 1364

EP - 1380

JO - Journal of personality

JF - Journal of personality

SN - 0022-3506

IS - 6

ER -