Agreeableness
One of the Big Five.
Agreeableness is the tendency to put other people's interests and feelings on a level with your own: to trust, to help, to cooperate, to be modest and to sympathise. People high on it are warm and accommodating; people low on it are sceptical, competitive and blunt. It is the trait that most shapes how someone handles disagreement.
What it does not mean
A low score does not mean being unkind, and it is not what the word disagreeable means in conversation. Low scorers are often loyal, fair and honest; they simply give less weight to other people's feelings when deciding what to say or do.
A high score is not a measure of being liked or of being good. Agreeable people can be taken advantage of, avoid conflicts that need having, and say yes when they mean no.
High and low in daily life
High. People high on agreeableness say they trust others, love to help, sympathise with those worse off, avoid fights and do not think highly of themselves. In daily life that shows as being the one others confide in, giving way in arguments, finding it hard to refuse, and assuming good intentions until proved otherwise.
Low. People low on agreeableness say they distrust people, are indifferent to others' feelings, love a good fight, think highly of themselves and use others for their own ends. In daily life that shows as blunt feedback, hard negotiation, scepticism of motives, comfort with conflict, and a small number of relationships that run deep.
What the research says it predicts
Agreeableness predicts relationship satisfaction, less conflict with partners and peers, and volunteering, with small to moderate effects. (Ozer and Benet-MartÃnez, 2006)
Its link to job performance is weak and depends on the job, unlike conscientiousness. (Barrick and Mount, 1991)
On average people become more agreeable through adulthood, especially after fifty. (Roberts, Walton and Viechtbauer, 2006)
Where people fall
The spread of scores
Curve height shows how common each score is; the darker middle holds half of all people. If you have taken a test on this device, your marker is drawn on.
IPIP-NEO-120, agreeableness, 24 items
410,376 people
IPIP-50, agreeableness, 10 items
603,322 people
The other traits
Sources and licence
Ozer, D. J., & Benet-MartÃnez, V. (2006). Personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 401-421. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190127
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44(1), 1-26. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(1), 1-25. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1
Instrument: IPIP-NEO-120. Johnson, J. A. (2014). Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality, 51, 78-89. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.05.003 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/30FacetNEO-PI-RItems.htm.
Norms: Johnson, J. A. IPIP-NEO-120 public dataset (IPIP120.dat), OSF component wxvth of osf.io/tbmh5, https://osf.io/wxvth/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm
Instrument: IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers. Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26-42. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/newBigFive5broadKey.htm.
Norms: Open-Source Psychometrics Project, IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers responses (IPIP-FFM-data-8Nov2018.zip), 1,015,342 responses collected 2016 to 2018, https://openpsychometrics.org/_rawdata/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm