Which psychology trait is the strongest predictor of success?

You’ve probably heard of the ‘Big 5’ psychology traits: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness.

But which one is most correlated with real-world success? In 2019, the University of Toronto released a “study of studies” from multiple countries that looked at how personality traits affect career trajectories.

“The most potent, non-cognitive predictor of workplace performance”, the Toronto team found, was Conscientiousness.

Conscientious people work hard, they are orderly, they have strong self-control, and they abide by rules. These in turn predict good academic and work performance, physical and mental health, and even marital stability.

Previous research had suggested Extraversion was a strong predictor of life success. It is, but the Toronto team found that conscientiousness was more important.

One reason: conscientiousness can also be a negative trait. It predicts an absence of counterproductive behavior. Meaning, you don’t waste time and effort on destructive, disruptive things.

Instead, if you’re high in conscientiousness you are driven by goals, are considered reliable and dependable, and work well with others. Such things naturally bring success in the workplace.

Traits such as self-control and ‘grit’ have been popularized by books like The Power of Habit and Grit, but the Toronto team’s Michael Wilmot says these are really sub-traits of the “mother construct”: Conscientiousness.

The Toronto study chimes with research by Rainer Zitelmann, compiled in his book The Wealth Elite. Although the millionaires and billionaires Zitelmann studied were high in Extroversion, an even stronger and more common trait was Conscientiousness. Most wrote down very clear goals, and they worked hard to achieve them.

Bottom line: There’s no point being a brilliant rebel or iconoclast if you can’t deliver. Conscientious people follow through on their goals and ideas. That makes them “most likely to succeed” while others never get going or burn out too soon.