What is agreeableness as a personality trait?

What are the characteristics of those who score high in agreeableness?

Kindness is a personality trait that, in popular culture, is always seen as positive and desirable.. While this is partly true, it must be said that being very nice can sometimes have some drawbacks.

Be that as it may, below we will take a closer look at this personality trait, how people who are very high on it are, how people who are very low on it are, and how it relates to professional success and forgiveness.

What is agreeableness as a personality trait?

Within the Big Five model by psychologists Paul Costa and Robert McCrae.Kindness, also called friendliness, is one of the traits that make up the personality.

Agreeableness is described as the tendency of people to be compassionate and helpful to others. People with high scores on this dimension are usually seen as warm, friendly, and diplomatic.

Being cordial is related to having an optimistic view of others, as well as putting others' interests before one's own and maintaining good relationships with peers. One seeks to please everyone, to possess social harmony. That is, possessing a high degree of kindness is related to exhibiting prosocial behaviors.

As a result, kind people tend to perform especially well in social situations and in team activities, as well as fostering a good interpersonal environment, avoiding confrontation and trying to solve relational problems.

In contrast, people who score lower on this dimension tend to be less altruistic.. They are not so inclined to put their interests before those of others, being quite common for them to opt for selfish behavior, although this in itself does not have to be something negative. They tend to be more competitive and even manipulative.

Those with low levels of kindness have been linked to manifesting higher levels of what is known as the "dark triad", a series of "dark triad" behaviors. or dark triad, a series of characteristics that are related to negative personality aspects. These include Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. It is worth mentioning that they are also more prone to suffer from cardiac pathology and live a more accelerated aging.

Each of the traits that make up the Big Five model has been shown to be behind certain positive aspects in life. Kindness, as we were saying before, is a predictor of having good and solid interpersonal relationships.

Kind individuals tend to be tend to be better accepted in peer groups and suffer less bullying situations. and suffer less bullying situations. In addition, they enjoy better contact with the desired sex, either during dating or in more intimate contexts. They enjoy a higher degree of partner satisfaction, as well as being less prone to marital breakups.

People with high cordiality tend to enjoy success in professions where social skills are needed or a task is carried out in collaborative work environments. They also tend to be involved in situations of helping the underprivileged, such as volunteering, as well as being less involved in criminal situations.

Facets of this trait

Within the kindness dimension, like the other personality dimensions of the Big Five model, we can find several more concrete facets. In the case of agreeableness they are the following.

1. Trustworthiness

This facet would refer to the tendency to to assume that most of the people we meet are fair, honest and have good intentions..

2. Openness / Sincerity

A kind person tends not to manipulate othersby being frank and candid.

3. Altruism

Consists of helping others and getting pleasure from performing altruistic tasks.. Doing things for others fulfills them, rather than seeing it as a form of self-sacrifice.

4. Conciliatory attitude

Confrontation is avoided and try to get along with others.

5. Modesty

Modesty is understood as the way of showing oneself to the world as one is, without exaggerating positive attributes. This is done without necessarily having a lack of self-esteem and having diminished confidence in one's abilities.

6. Empathy / Sympathy

People who score high in empathy are emotionally attentive to others, and know how to put themselves in their place.. They are sympathetic to the disadvantageous situation another person may be going through.

Kindness and professional success

High scores on this trait have been linked to career success. This, while partly true, should be taken with a grain of salt, since personality traits should be viewed as a selling point. personality traits should be viewed as contextually advantageous.. There are situations in which being friendly is beneficial, while in others it may pose a problem for the person's physical and mental integrity.

In most cases, possessing social skills and having a generally friendly personality is related to a good work adjustment and a good relationship with co-workers, as well as being a factor that can contribute to salary increases and promotions.

As we have already seen, cordial people are seen as warmer and more pleasant. In a work context such as an office, having employees who contribute to the development of a proper interpersonal dynamic in that place can increase the company's productivityand reduce the risk of sick leave. This can be explained by the fact that workers will be more willing to go to work due to the fact that they find people with whom they have a good time.

However, if in that same workplace there is an unsociable person, it is quite likely that the company has a serious problem. On the one hand, toxic situations can develop both inside and outside the office, and on the other hand, the unfriendly person will have very little desire to go to work, which in itself puts them at risk of being fired and others at risk of having to put up with someone who does not give their all.

However, the profile of a nice person may not be the same as that of a nice person, the profile of a friendly person may not be the most appropriate for certain professions.. For example, in a high school, where the students are teenagers who may be potentially disruptive, it is not appropriate for the teacher to always be polite, especially if there is a case of bullying in class or one of the youngsters is disrupting the session. The teacher must be firm and expel the student, or stop the aggression if it is happening.

Another area where having a low cordiality profile can be an advantage rather than a disadvantage is in the military. A soldier should not be a nice person who sees the best in others, since if he does so in a war situation he is quite likely to miss the enemy and end up paying for it with his life. That is to say, kindness is not very helpful in professions where a certain competitive spirit is required.

How does it relate to forgiveness?

Scientific evidence has suggested that agreeableness may be the most robust predictor of prosocial behaviors such as forgiveness and its antagonist, revenge..

Forgiveness can be understood as a process in which a person manages, by means of words, to restore a relationship that had been damaged by an act, both physical and verbal, that had harmed another person. Asking for forgiveness predisposes a person not to attack in the future, in addition to loosening up the situation and reducing negative emotions.

Given that people with lower kindness are antagonistic, hostile, irritable, and tend to show little respect for others, they also seem to be people who are more likely to engage in revengeful behavior rather than forgiving those who may have harmed them.

On the other hand, affable people tend to seek more meaningful relationships with others.If they are harmed by some kind of harmful act, such as an aggression or insult, they will opt for strategies to reduce tension, forgiveness being the most important and recurrent of them.

Bibliographical references:

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