The Relationship between Personal Characteristics and Tertiary Education: The Role of Personality, Physical Attractiveness and Self-esteem

Abstract

the relationship Between Personal Characteristics and tertiary Education:the role of Personality, Physical attractiveness and Self-esteem abstract: Focusing on a subject largely neglected in mainstream Czech social stratification research so far, this study seeks to examine to what extent tertiary educational attainment and educational mobility are affected by personal factors, such as personality traits, physical attractiveness, and self-esteem. It is based on data drawn from a large-scale representative survey carried out in the Czech Republic (Neglected Human Capital Dimensions 2015) as the second follow-up to the OECD PIAAC project. The results show that physical attractiveness plays a significant role in tertiary educational attainment, especially in the humanities and social-science disciplines. As for personality traits, Openness to Experience and Extraversion are more beneficial for humanities degrees, whereas Neuroticism significantly decreases a person's chances of obtaining a degree in science. Conscientiousness and Self-esteem have a positive impact on upward educational mobility. The study also finds that there are some gender differences in the strength of the effect of personality factors, and that this is especially true for the trait of Agreeableness.