Theories of Personality 9th Edition

Chapter 15 Buss: Evolutionary Theory of Personality 451

To pet owners the question of animal personality seems to have an obvious
answer: Of course, animals have distinct personalities. But to psychologists the
question might seem to be stretching the definition of personality too far. But even
if we can see evidence of personality in animals such as dogs and cats, can we see
it in other animals? What about birds? reptiles? fish? worms?
Until the 1990s, most psychologists would have argued that the term personality
made sense only as applied to humans, but since then numerous studies have supported
the notion that nonhuman animals not only have distinct personalities but they have
personalities on dimensions similar to the Big Five in humans (Barnard et al., 2016;
Dingemanse, Both, Drent, Van Oers, & Van Noordwijk, 2002; Gosling, 1998; Gosling,
Kwan, & John, 2003; Rayment, Peters, Marston, & DeGroef, 2016; Suwała, Górecka-
Bruzda, Walczak, Ensminger, & Jezierski, 2016; Weinstein, Capitanio, & Gosling,
2008). For example, Gosling and Oliver John (1999) conducted a meta-analysis (quan-
titative review) of 19 studies across 12 nonhuman species. They found evidence for at
least 14 nonhuman species with personality traits that can be categorized along the
same dimensions as human personality. The summary of these findings is presented
in Table 15.3. Keep in mind that the labels from the Big Five are general labels, and
the specific ones used in these studies vary somewhat. For instance, neuroticism is
sometimes called emotional stability, excitability, fearfulness, emotional reactivity,
fear–avoidance, or emotionality. Agreeableness is sometimes labeled aggression, hostil-
ity, understanding, opportunistic, sociability, affection, or fighting–timidity. In addition,
dominance–submission is a trait that is often seen and measured in nonhuman animals,

TABLE 15.3

Table of Personality Dimensions across Species

Personality Dimension

Species Neuroticism Extraversion Agreeableness Openness Conscientiousness

Chimpanzee ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Horsea ✓ ✓ ✓? ✓

Rhesus Monkey ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Gorilla ✓ ✓ ✓

Dog ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓b

Cat ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓b

Hyena ✓ ✓ ✓

Pig ✓ ✓ ✓

Vervet Monkey ✓ ✓

Donkey ✓ ✓

Rat ✓ ✓

Guppy (Fish) ✓ ✓

Octopus ✓ ✓

Chickadeec ✓

aBased on Morris, Gale, & Duffy (2002).
bCompetence/learning is a mixture of openness and conscientiousness.
cBased on Dingemanse, Both, Drent, Van Oers, & Van Noordwijk (2002).

Expanded and adapted from Gosling & John, 1999.