The intelligence and personality of Finland's Swedish-speaking minority

Edward Dutton, Dimitri Van der Linden, Guy Madison, Jan Antfolk, Michael A. Woodley of Menie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

There is evidence that Finland's Swedish-speaking minority (Finland-Swedes) may have a distinct intelligence–personality profile from the Finnish-speaking Finns (Finns). We test this through an examination of the twogroups' PISA (Programme of International Student Assessment) scores (which assesses representative samples of 15 year olds fromOECD countries) and their personality scores, drawing upon a representative Finnish sample.Wefound Finland-Swedes to have slightly lower average intelligence. However,when controlling for gender and age, the Finland-Swedes score significantly higher on Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Emotional Stability.Overall, we found a Jensen Effect whereby most of the personality differences between the two groups could be attributed to the General Factor of Personality (GFP), which reflects the shared variance of lower-order personality traits. The GFP is assumed to reflect general social effectiveness.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)45–49
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume97
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • intelligence
  • general factor of personality
  • Finns
  • Finland-Swedes
  • Big5

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