- Ugh. Personality traits are set in very early childhood and don’t change much over time. Asking people to become “more conscientious” in the way the science understands it is like asking me to stop being bald. Any attempt would be entirely artificial. on.ft.com/46Najk8
- But that’s just the first problem with this piece. The bigger issue is that surveys like this don’t actually measure shifts in latent personality traits. They measure shifts in how people understand themselves in the context of others — and that context is always shifting.Aug 8, 2025 08:23
- Measuring *actual* personality traits requires laboratory or extended observational research. Surveys can approximate (as my own do), but they’re too a flimsy peg on which to hang an argument like this.
- In sum, this research does not show that rates of conscientiousness are falling. It shows that people are less likely to think of themselves as particularly conscientious in comparison to others. And that may matter, but not necessarily in the way this article suggests.
