These 3 Personality Traits Affect What You Earn

These 3 Personality Traits Affect What You Earn

Do you often sit in the office and wonder how much your peers are earning? Are you hoping to be one of the rich workers in the office? If so, you should read on to know about 3 personality traits that affect what you earn.

The Study

The top 3 personality traits that affect what you earn were highlighted in a study conducted by Dr. Gensowski who belongs to the University of Copenhagen. She used the data from Terman study which is one of the longest running studies in psychology that followed more than 1000 men and women in California who had IQs higher than 140. All these traits are more relevant to men because the data was collected at a time when women were rarely employed in out of the home jobs.

Trait No. 1


According to Dr. Gensowski, conscientiousness means being driven, hardworking, organized and reliable. All these are a part of the life of a high achiever as these are tools that help him or her to succeed. The study found that people who were more conscientiousness didn’t earn more than people who were not in the first few years of the working life. The gap in pay appeared only when the age limit of 30 years was crossed. The earnings skyrocketed when the subjects reached 40 years of age and lasted until they were 60.

Trait No. 2


Extroverts know that they can talk about anything and be out there day after day. This trait helps them to achieve professional success too according to the study conducted by Dr. Gensowski. She found out that even if two people have the same background characteristics and all traits except being an extrovert, the extrovert will earn USD 600,000 more than an introvert over a lifetime.

Trait No. 3


If you have an image of being the most agreeable guy in your office, then there’s some disappointing news for you. According to Dr. Gensowski’s study, people who are less agreeable, less friendly or less eager to offer a friendly hand to others will earn more than an agreeable person who is always there for everyone. The gap in earnings over a lifetime comes to about USD 270,000.

A Mentionable Aspect

The study by Dr. Gensowski also revealed that highly educated men benefit over twice as much from these personality traits as compared to less educated men. So, education always matters no matter what era it is!