Personality traits and values: a replication with a Swedish sample

Abstract

To maintain rigor and transparency in the science of personality psychology, we conducted a replication of the often cited “The Big Five Personality Factors and Personal Values” by Roccas, Sagiv, Schwartz, and Knafo (2002). More than a decade ago, based on a study of Israeli students, they presented results on how personality traits and personal values relate. In the current replication study with Swedish students, we related the Big Five personality traits to Schwartz´s personal values. Our results replicated most of the earlier findings. Whereas the earlier study tested the predictive validity of traits and values on religious beliefs, presumed to be under a relatively high degree of cognitive control, our study tested the willingness-to-pay for Fairtrade alternatives. Our findings confirmed the earlier findings that personal values explain substantially more variance than personality traits in this. We discuss that traits and values are different constructs and that their relationship is consistent across the two geographic locations and student cohorts.