TY - JOUR
T1 - Comedians’ trait level and stage personalities
T2 - Evidence for goal-directed personality adaptation
AU - Irwing, Paul
AU - Cook, Clare
AU - Pollet, Thomas
AU - Hughes, David
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - Recent findings have shown that both mean levels of personality and situational variability in its expression are of importance. So here, the Big Five personality traits of 77 professional and 125 amateur stand-up comedians were compared to two large matched samples (N>100,000). The comedians were also observed whilst performing, which enabled a comparison of their stage personalities with situational requirements on 10 selected NEO-PIR facets. Both amateurs and professionals showed higher openness-to-experience, extraversion, and lower conscientiousness than their norm samples, while professionals also evidenced greater neuroticism. Irrespective of trait standing, with regard to most NEO-PIR facets, professionals expressed the appropriate on-stage persona and were better able to regulate their personality to conform to situational requirements than amateurs. This is consistent with research showing that individuals regulate their personality to conform to situational and goal requirements and adds the finding that successful comedians demonstrate enhanced adaptability compared to amateurs.
AB - Recent findings have shown that both mean levels of personality and situational variability in its expression are of importance. So here, the Big Five personality traits of 77 professional and 125 amateur stand-up comedians were compared to two large matched samples (N>100,000). The comedians were also observed whilst performing, which enabled a comparison of their stage personalities with situational requirements on 10 selected NEO-PIR facets. Both amateurs and professionals showed higher openness-to-experience, extraversion, and lower conscientiousness than their norm samples, while professionals also evidenced greater neuroticism. Irrespective of trait standing, with regard to most NEO-PIR facets, professionals expressed the appropriate on-stage persona and were better able to regulate their personality to conform to situational requirements than amateurs. This is consistent with research showing that individuals regulate their personality to conform to situational and goal requirements and adds the finding that successful comedians demonstrate enhanced adaptability compared to amateurs.
KW - comedians
KW - invariance
KW - organizational behavior
KW - personality
KW - whole trait theory
U2 - 10.1177/0146167219867963
DO - 10.1177/0146167219867963
M3 - Article
VL - 46
SP - 590
EP - 602
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
SN - 0146-1672
IS - 4
ER -