4. Looking at a basic personality trait.


In my last post I described how we need to define relevant factors that predict how an individual behaves. Let's examine one of those.

The needs or wants in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, are usually not called personality traits, because they are assumed to be pretty much universal. I want to challenge that assumption and instead propose that differences in how strong these needs are, affects many personality traits.

All humans (and animals) seek pleasure and want to avoid pain. But we differ in where we draw the line for what pain/gain ratio is acceptaable. Some are more risk-averse than others. They prefer to play it safe even though that will reduce the reward. So what Maslow calls the need to feel safe, isn't equally strong in everyone.


How does this difference affect traits and behaviours?

As a representative for the more risk-averse, we can take Epicurus. His life philosophy was to avoid pain, fear and stress - then you will be happy and at peace. He taught that one ought to live like this, but I'm not putting any moral value on this, just claiming that we are different in this regard.

Maybe this comes from different abilities to handle stress. Some get very upset by conflict and drama while others just shrug it off. The latter ones, instead get bored when their life is too safe and predictable. For adrenaline junkies and gamblers, the risk can be something positive in itself.

If emotional stress is perceived as very negative and consumes a lot of mental ”energy”, it's understandable that you want to stay in your comfort zone.

But avoiding risks for the benefit of your peace of mind, is probably not good for your career. One could argue that it probably also makes you less curious and open-minded.

Being more risk-averse can possibly make you more likely to be an introvert, more honest, conservative and heterosexual. Being less risk-averse could possibly make you more likely to be ambitious, brave and prone to addictions, We should research those connections more.

In any case, this seems to be one of the fundamental properties of a human psyche. There should be more that are orthogonal to each other (i. e. not dependent on each other). I can think of a few, e. g. IQ, emotional variance/stability, being egocentric/attuned to others.

We should try to figure out what the most basic properites are and then measure them to see the distribution in a population. The easiest way to try to do that, is with questionnaires. We could maybe use questions like:

* Would you like to have a more challenging job?

* Do you often drive over the speed limit?

* Do you wish you could travel more abroad?

(Preferably questions that can't be interpreted in different ways and that you answer the same as a friend who describes you.)


Related Wikipedia articles:

Epicurus

Risk aversion


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