Personality traits are less stable than people think

Abstract Historically, personality traits have been viewed as highly stable and “set like plaster” once people reach adulthood. Although decades of research have refuted this claim, it remains unclear how much personality traits actually change compared to other aspects of life and whether these relative change patterns align with public beliefs. Across two studies, we investigated these questions using a multimethod, comparative approach with the Big Five traits and more than 20 variables from several life domains. First, using a nationally representative US-sample ( n = 887), we found that laypeople rated the Big Five traits as having less change across the lifespan than nearly all other characteristics. Second, analyses using eight large-scale longitudinal datasets from the US, Germany, Australia, and Netherlands ( n = 166,971) revealed that standardized yearly and lifespan mean-level changes in the Big Five were comparable to, and often greater than, changes in variables like life satisfaction, subjective health, income, and self-esteem. Together, these results uncover widespread misconceptions of stability that diverge from empirical evidence and are seemingly unique to personality traits. We discuss potential implications of these findings for how people view human potential for change, improvement, and adaptation.