More “personalient” individuals—those with higher levels of the General Factor of Personality (GFP)—are generally happier, according to research published in Personality & Individual Differences.
The concept of the General Factor of Personality (GFP) has been likened to the general factor of intelligence (g), as both emerge from analyses of multiple measures within their respective domains. GFP reflects social effectiveness and emotional intelligence, traits that promote smoother interpersonal relationships.
Satoshi Kanazawa proposed that this smoother social interaction aligns with the evolutionary theory of happiness, which posits that human happiness is influenced by ancestral conditions. Individuals with higher GFP, or “personalient” traits, are predicted to experience greater happiness due to their ability to foster better social connections.
Previous studies have shown correlations between GFP and life satisfaction using smaller or geographically restricted samples. However, debates about the validity of GFP as a construct have been ongoing in personality psychology. Kanazawa aimed to provide robust evidence for the relationship between GFP and happiness.
The researcher utilized two large, longitudinal datasets from different populations. The first dataset, the National Child Development Study (NCDS), tracked over 17,000 individuals born in the United Kingdom in 1958. Participants were surveyed at multiple points throughout their lives, providing detailed information on various aspects of their personal and professional experiences.
At age 51, participants completed a personality assessment based on the Big Five personality traits, allowing researchers to calculate their GFP scores through factor analysis. Happiness was measured through self-reports of life satisfaction, which participants rated on a scale of 0 to 10 at several life stages, including ages 33, 42, 47, and 51. The study also included key control variables such as intelligence, education, income, and gender to isolate the effect of GFP on happiness.
The second dataset, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), followed over 20,000 American participants from adolescence into adulthood, beginning in 1994. In this study, GFP was derived at age 29 using a shorter personality inventory, while happiness was measured through a combination of self-reports on how often participants felt happy and their overall life satisfaction at different points in time. These measurements captured happiness and satisfaction across key developmental stages, including adolescence, young adulthood, and middle age.
Both datasets allowed for an examination of how GFP influenced happiness over time, accounting for prior levels of life satisfaction to test whether genetic predispositions or social interactions played a larger role.
The analyses of both datasets revealed a consistent and robust relationship between GFP and happiness. In the NCDS, individuals with higher GFP scores reported significantly greater life satisfaction at all surveyed life stages. Even after controlling for variables such as intelligence, income, education, and prior levels of happiness, GFP remained a strong predictor of happiness. A one-standard-deviation increase in GFP was associated with a 30–60% increase in the likelihood of being in a higher category of life satisfaction. Importantly, the effect of GFP appeared to grow stronger with age, suggesting that the influence of social and interpersonal effectiveness on happiness may accumulate over time.
Similar findings emerged from the Add Health study, where individuals with higher GFP scores reported greater happiness and life satisfaction across different stages of life. Here too, GFP was a stronger predictor of happiness compared to other variables like income or education. Notably, the relationship between GFP and happiness persisted even after accounting for earlier levels of happiness, providing evidence against a purely genetic explanation for the association. Instead, the findings suggested that smoother social and interpersonal interactions in everyday life, facilitated by higher GFP, were the primary drivers of increased happiness.
Together, these results highlighted the importance of GFP as a key factor in understanding individual differences in happiness and life satisfaction.
Of note is that the datasets focused on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies, limiting generalizability of results.
The research, “More personalient people are happier,” was authored by Satoshi Kanazawa.
