December, 5 — Regular Seminar

Topic: Comparative Studies of the Evolution of Personality: The Complex Five Factor Model Versus a Focus on Simple Facets
Speaker: Michael Minkov (professor of cross-cultural studies, Varna University of Management; principal investigator, Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, HSE University)

The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next regular seminar, which will be held as a zoom session on December, 5 at 02:30 p.m. CET (04:30 p.m. Moscow time, GMT+3). Michael Minkov (Varna University of Management; LCSR, HSE University) will deliver a report "Comparative Studies of the Evolution of Personality: The Complex Five Factor Model Versus a Focus on Simple Facets".

To participate, please, register via the link.

Abstract:

The study of animal personality is a rapidly expanding field, now covering more than 200 species, some of them multiple times. One of the reasons for that is the notion that knowledge of animal personality helps us understand human personality and its evolution. Many studies of animal personality, especially primate personality, use the human Five Factor Model (FFM), claim that some or all of the human factors replicate, at least in some primates, and attempt to trace the evolution of those factors back to the period before the separation of humans from other apes, and even earlier. I argue that the human FFM is inappropriate for the study of any animal personality since much of the FFM consists of uniquely human characteristics that are impossible without a human mind functioning in a human culture. Besides, the human FFM replicates very poorly, even within studies of chimpanzees and across such studies: their authors disregard even the most basic invariance criteria, such as percentage of items with highest loadings on the same factor. I suggest focusing on simple FFM facets rather than complex traits. Some of these facets (activity/energy, curiosity/exploration, sociability, anxiety/fearfulness) are meaningful descriptors not only of primates but also of much simpler organisms. This simplification would allow tracing the history of those facets from the simplest organisms (anemones) to the most complex (primates, including humans). 

Everyone interested is invited!

Working language is English.