Research on National Character Dispels Personality Stereotypes

How many Americans does it take to replace a light bulb? None—they just ask a Canadian to do it.

For many, this punch line elicits a few chuckles (from the Americans), or at least a small smirk of why it could be funny (from our Canada readers), due to a common understanding of national stereotypes: the compliant Canadian versus the pushy American. But are these ‘national characters’ really true? Do the people from these countries actually exhibit docile and bossy personality traits, respectively?

In an article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, co-authors Robert R. McCrae and Antonio Terracciano of the National Institute on Aging examine research on the accuracy of national character, a term they define as similar to a cultural stereotype, but pertaining only to personality characteristics, as opposed to stereotypes built on physical features (e.g. “the somber Scandinavian” instead of “the fat American”).  They found that people’s perceptions of national character—even in relation to their own native countries—is consistent across domestic and cross-cultural samples, but does not reflect individuals’ actual personality traits.

Research on national character combines personality psychology and cross cultural studies. Psychologists from around the world are working together, collaborating, and sharing data allowing for a broader analysis of the interaction between personality and culture.  Most of the studies that McCrae and Terracciano discuss in their article drew data from surveys that were nearly epic in size.  Data was analyzed from 4000 individuals speaking 27 languages in 49 countries on 6 continents.
Terracciano created the first test used in this research, the National Character Survey. It asks citizens to describe their national stereotype.  As an example, Canadians taking this test might be asked, “How agreeable is the typical Canadian?”

Next, participants took the NEO-PI-R, a personality inventory that measures dimensions of five personality traits common in all cultures: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, and Conscientiousness. By answering how likely they are to “get angry easily” or “worry about things,” subjects’ personality characteristics were recorded by the subjects themselves and by close family or friends.  Terracciano and his colleagues then compared the data from the National Character Survey with the personality inventory for each individual country.

“Reliable but not accurate,” seems to be the theme of national character.

Imagine it’s your turn at the bowling alley, and you are aiming for a strike.  Your first attempt rolls straight into the gutter.  Your second flies down the gutter, too.  Let’s face it, you’re a reliable bowler (always inadvertently missing the pins), yet painfully inaccurate.

Similar to your bowling game, national and cultural stereotypes tend to be remarkably consistent, but are most often imprecise.  Across the globe—from Estonia to Indonesia, Peru to Turkey—conceptions of national stereotypes were stable, but bore no resemblance to actual personality scores on any of the five major domains of personality.

Canadians, for example, generally saw their national character as being low in neuroticism and high in agreeableness, but results from the Canadian Personality Inventory revealed the opposite.  United States citizens thought they were high in neuroticism and low in agreeableness, but lo and behold, American personality scores suggest they’re a lot less ‘nutty’ and a lot more ‘nice.’

“There does not appear to even be a kernel of truth in the stereotypes of national character,” McCrea and Terracciano conclude.  “While there is some consensus, there is no accuracy.”  Looks like we’re still throwing gutter balls.

Although national stereotypes are often the fodder for jokes, prevailing yet misguided national stereotypes have serious consequences when they are the basis for prejudice and cultural discrimination.

Even though it may be easy to capture an entire nation in one convenient stereotype, McCrae and Terracciano urgently warn against it: “National character stereotypes are not even exaggerations of real differences: They are fictions.”

Along with that bowling ball, it appears we may need to throw our stereotypes of the mild-mannered Canadian and the pushy American to the gutters.

See “National Character and Personality” in the August 2006 issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.  The article is available online for APS members at www.psychologicalscience.org/journals.