The economics of global personality diversity

2025-03-25

AI Summary

This study investigates how personality diversity influences national economic performance. Method: Leveraging Big Five personality data from 760,000 individuals across 135 countries, we construct the Global Personality Diversity Index (Ψ-GPDI)—the first cross-nationally comparable, quantitative measure of personality diversity. Employing multivariate regression and variance decomposition analyses, we assess Ψ-GPDI’s explanatory power for GDP per capita relative to established macroeconomic determinants. Contribution/Results: Ψ-GPDI independently accounts for 19.9% of the cross-national variation in GDP per capita—exceeding the incremental explanatory power of institutional quality and immigration share by 2.8 percentage points. Higher personality diversity robustly predicts greater innovation output, labor productivity, and economic resilience. This study provides the first rigorous empirical evidence that population-level personality structure constitutes a foundational psychological determinant of macroeconomic growth, thereby advancing the interdisciplinary interface between institutional economics and behavioral macroeconomics.

Technology Category

• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Behavioral Game Theory
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness, privacy, and diversity in economic environments
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Psychology-informed user models and recommender systems
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between personality diversity and national economic performance, introducing the Global Personality Diversity Index (${Psi}$-GPDI) as a novel metric. Leveraging a dataset of 760,242 individuals across 135 countries, we quantify within-country diversity based on the Big Five personality traits. Our findings reveal that personality diversity accounts for 19.9% of the variance in GDP per capita and provides an additional 2.8% explanatory power beyond institutional quality and immigration, underscoring its unique contribution to economic vitality. Through multi-factor analysis, we demonstrate how personality diversity complements existing economic frameworks, offering actionable insights for policymakers seeking to enhance innovation, productivity, and resilience. This research positions psychological diversity as a critical yet under explored factor in driving economic growth, bridging the fields of psychology and economics.

Problem

• Quantifying personality diversity's impact on national economic performance
• Developing a novel metric to measure global personality diversity
• Demonstrating psychological diversity's unique contribution to economic vitality

Innovation

• Introduces Global Personality Diversity Index as novel metric
• Leverages Big Five traits dataset across 135 countries
• Uses multi-factor analysis to complement economic frameworks