Altruism
A facet of agreeableness. Four items in the IPIP-NEO-120.
The third facet of agreeableness is wanting to help: loving to be of use, being concerned about other people, and making time for them. It is the active, generous side of agreeableness, where sympathy is the feeling side and cooperation the peaceable side.
What it does not mean
A low score is not selfishness as a moral failing. Low scorers help when asked and take care of their own; they do not seek out opportunities to help and do not feel a pull towards other people's needs. That is a disposition, not a character reference.
A high score is not self-sacrifice. Helpful people often enjoy helping and are good at it; the cost is finding it hard to say no.
Four items make a short scale. A facet score moves more between attempts than the 24-item domain score, and it describes a tendency in ordinary life as the person reports it, not a diagnosis of anything.
High and low in daily life
High. People high on this facet say they love to help others and are concerned about them. In daily life that shows as being the first to offer, noticing who needs a hand, volunteering, and a diary filled with other people's errands. Others rely on them, sometimes too much.
Low. People low on this facet say they are indifferent to the feelings of others and take no time for them. In daily life that shows as a clear boundary between their business and other people's, help given when asked rather than offered, and an efficiency that warmer people find cold.
Parent domain
- Agreeableness: the broad trait this facet belongs to, with five sibling facets.
What the research says it predicts
Agreeableness predicts helping, and the link runs through empathic concern: agreeable people feel for others in need and act on it, in both reported and observed behaviour. (Habashi, Graziano and Hoover, 2016)
Agreeable people were more willing to help, particularly where no role or relationship required it, in studies that paired personality with real opportunities to help. (Graziano and others, 2007)
Agreeableness rises on average 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, altruism, 4 items
410,376 people
The other facets of agreeableness
Sources and licence
Habashi, M. M., Graziano, W. G., & Hoover, A. E. (2016). Searching for the prosocial personality: A Big Five approach to linking personality and prosocial behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(9), 1177-1192. doi:10.1177/0146167216652859
Graziano, W. G., Habashi, M. M., Sheese, B. E., & Tobin, R. M. (2007). Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A person × situation perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(4), 583-599. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.4.583
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