Researchers examine how smartphone interventions can alter personality traits. Personality traits are malleable through adulthood. However, whether personality traits can be changed through nonclinical psychological interventions is unclear. Mirjam Stieger, Mathias Allemand, and colleagues deployed a 3-month digital personality change intervention in a randomized, controlled trial of 1,523 participants aged 18 years or older. Accessible via a smartphone app, the intervention included elements of behavioral and resource activation-- which targets increases in novel and desired behaviors and capitalizes on existing strengths and skills--psychoeducation, self-reflection, and progress feedback. The majority of participants indicated that they wanted to decrease their neuroticism, increase their conscientiousness, or increase their extraversion. Compared with participants in the control group who did not receive the intervention during the first month of the study, participants in the intervention group reported greater success in meeting their change goals. Close associates of the participants, such as friends and family members, detected trait changes for participants wanting to increase a trait but not for those wanting to decrease a trait. Trait changes reported by both participants and their close associates persisted 3 months after the intervention ended. The findings suggest that personality traits can be altered through interventions in nonclinical samples, according to the authors.
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Article #20-17548: "Changing personality traits with the help of a digital personality change intervention," by Mirjam Stieger et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Mirjam Stieger, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; tel: 857-415-7482; email: < stieger@brandeis.edu >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences