Direct and Indirect Effects of Agreeableness on Overconfidence

Abstract

Abstract. Agreeableness is generally thought to be a personality trait with positive outcomes, especially with regards to the creation and maintenance of harmonious interpersonal relationships. The potential negative consequences of agreeableness are discussed less often. This study explores the potential for overconfidence among agreeable people. In addition, self-esteem and perceived similarity were examined as an explanation for the indirect effects of agreeableness on overconfidence. Specifically, within each pair of 104 student dyads who had worked jointly on a project in an undergraduate course, one acted as a rater and the other as a ratee. The raters were asked to evaluate their partner’s performance, while the ratees were asked how they thought the raters had evaluated their performance. Our measure of overconfidence was the gap between the partner’s evaluation of the participant’s performance and the participant’s belief in how this performance was evaluated. Additional measures filled out by the subjects included agreeableness, friendship, self-esteem, and perceived similarity. Results indicated that self-esteem and perceived similarity provide an approach for understanding the indirect effects of the agreeableness-overconfidence association.

The Many Dimensions of Mental Health and Personality: N=13, 626

“…Our results are consistent with ndings from these studies. Con dence is closely related to agreeableness in both young and old adults [102] and agreeableness and overcon dence are associated [103], consistent with our result. However, our ndings seem to be inconsistent with previous ndings that agreeableness is unaffected by depression and anxiety [94].…”

Personality traits and dimensions of mental health

“…Our findings seem to be consistent with these previous studies. Additionally, our study found that Agreeableness is positively related to confidence in older adults 83 , which is in line with the notion that Agreeableness and overconfidence are positively associated 84 . Finally, our findings also support previous research suggesting that Agreeableness is unaffected by depression and anxiety 80 .…”

Personality traits and the risk of incident (hypo)mania among subjects initially suffering from depressive and anxiety disorders in a 9-year cohort study

“…Since many participants suffered from a current mood disorder at baseline, DSM diagnoses of personality disorders cannot be reliably ascertained. Another limitation is the possibility of construct overlap between low agreeableness and hypomania, as low agreeableness could be an expression of over-confidence and following your own goals instead of considering what others want or need (Sukenik et al 2018). Finally, although we could adjust for the most important confounders, data on the family history of BD were missing.…”