e07: Openness vs Intellect Paradox
December 7th, 2022
18:00-19:00 CET (Europe) • 1:00-2:00 EST (North America, Eastern)
We’ll be discussing “From Madness to Genius: The Openness/Intellect Trait Domain as a Paradoxical Simplex” by DeYounga, Grazioplenea, and Peterson (2012). This study presents a novel theory that connects a person’s intelligence and apophenia (the tendency to detect connections and patterns that may not be real) to their personality traits, specifically the trait of Openness to new experiences. A range of sub-traits encompass the Openness spectrum, with one end being defined by apophenia or false detection of patterns, and the other end being characterized by intelligence. Despite both traits are associated with Openness the study found that they are negatively correlated. The paper, therefore, provides a framework for further research on how intelligence and apophenia relate to personality, as well as the psychological and biological mechanisms that underlie a person's openness to new experiences.
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DeYoung et al., 2012:
From madness to genius: The Openness/Intellect Trait Domain as a Paradoxical Simplex. Journal of Research in Personality 46(1):63-78.
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A novel theory of Openness/Intellect is proposed, which integrates intelligence and positive schizotypy (or apophenia, false detection of patterns or causal connections) within the Big Five. Openness/Intellect comprises a simplex of subtraits arrayed along a single scaling dimension. Openness traits fall in one half of the simplex, bounded by apophenia; Intellect traits fall in the other half, bounded by intelligence. The simplex is paradoxical because intelligence and apophenia are negatively correlated despite both loading positively on the general Openness/Intellect factor. The model was supported in two samples and organizes theories of (1) the relation of intelligence and schizotypy to personality, (2) the psychological and biological mechanisms involved in Openness/Intellect, and (3) the costs and benefits of Openness, proximally and evolutionarily.