Researchers asked these British mothers which personality traits they would most wish for their babies – extraversion came out on top.
研究人员问英国的妈妈，她们最希望自己孩子具备的人格特质是什么？外倾是最重要的。
Ambitious and self-disciplined or affable and fun-loving? If you could choose the personality profile for your children, what would you prioritise? Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, put this question to 142 British mothers with a baby aged 0 to 12 months. Reporting their findings in Personality and Individual Differences, Rachel Latham and Sophie von Stumm say there was a clear preference among the mothers for most of all wanting their infants to grow up to be extraverted, especially friendly and cheerful, more so than conscientious or intelligent, even though these latter attributes are more likely to contribute to a healthy, successful life. To the researchers’ knowledge this is the first time mothers’ wishes for their children’s personalities has been studied.
雄心勃勃、自律、友善和有趣？如果您可以为您的孩子选择人格画像，那么您会优先考虑什么？伦敦大学金史密斯研究人员向142名有着一名0至12个月婴儿的英国母亲询问了这个问题。Rachel Latham和Sophie von Stumm在《人格与个体差异》杂志报告他们的发现，绝大多数的母亲中都希望她们的婴儿长大后更具外倾性，尤其是友好和开朗，这些比责任心或聪明的期望更多，即使责任心或聪明更有可能有助于健康和成功的生活。据研究人员所知，这是首次对母亲对她们孩子人格之愿望进行的研究。
Latham and von Stumm told the mothers (average age 33) the six personality facets that make up each of the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience). For each trait, the mothers were asked to say which facet they would most like their child to have. See the results below, showing how often each facet was chosen as the most preferred for each trait:
Latham和von Stumm向这些（平均33岁的）母亲讲述了构成大五人格特质（外倾性Extraversion，责任心Conscientiousness，神经质Neuroticism，宜人性Agreeableness，开放性Openness）的六个人格面向。要求她们说出自己最喜欢孩子拥有每个特质的那个面向。如下的结果显示了作为每个特质的每个面向的最喜欢程：
After this, the mothers were asked to place their chosen five facets (one from each trait) in order of most to least important for their child to have, and to also place intelligence in its appropriate place in this list.
在此之后，要求母亲将她们所选的五个面向（每个特质取一个）从最重要到最不重要进行排序，以排列出对她们来说，哪些对孩是重要的，以及她们会将智力排在该列表中的适当的位置。
More than half the mothers chose a facet of Extraversion as the most important overall, followed by 20 per cent choosing a facet of Agreeableness, such as being moral or trustworthy, as most important. An Openness facet was chosen as most important by just under 10 per cent of mothers, with intelligence or a facet of Conscientiousness, such as achievement-striving, not far behind at 9 to 10 per cent. Mothers’ choices didn’t vary with the sex of their child.
一半以上的母亲选择外倾性作为最重要的一个面向，紧接其后的是宜人性20%，例如道德或值得信赖，是最重要的。开放性这一面向被10%以下的母亲选择为作重要的面向。选择智力或责任心（例如追求成就）的母亲不到9%。母亲的选择不会随着孩子的性别而变化。
Latham and von Stumm point out that the high priority that mothers placed on Extraversion and the relatively low priority given to Conscientiousness and Intelligence contrasts sharply with the research literature on which traits are most important to positive and negative life outcomes. For instance, people who are more intelligent and Conscientious tend to live longer, healthier lives and do better in their careers and relationships. By contrast, although Extraversion correlates with being happier, it is also associated with negative outcomes such as drink and drug problems.
Latham和von Stumm指出，母亲对Extraversion的高度重视和对责任心和智力的相对较低的的重视与那些对积极和消极的生活而言哪些特质是最重要的相关研究形成了鲜明对比。例如，更聪明、更有责任心的人往往更长寿，更健康，在事业和人际关系方面表现得更好。相比之下，虽然外向性与快乐有关，但是，外向也与饮酒和药物问题等负面结果有关。
Unfortunately, the research doesn’t speak to why mothers prioritised the traits that they did. “It is possible that mothers’ preference for extraversion is the result of a cohort effect, whereby the current zeitgeist, rather than the mothers themselves, values and encourages extraversion,” Latham and von Stumm speculated.
不幸的是，这项研究并没有说明妈妈优先考虑她们所选特质的原因。Latham和von Stumm推测：“母亲偏爱外倾性有可能是时代效应（cohort effect）的结果，即，由当今的时代精神重视和鼓励外向性所决定，而不是母亲本身决定的”
It will be interesting to see follow-up research on this question – for instance, how might mothers’ wishes for their children vary cross-culturally. And what about fathers’ wishes? The researchers speculated that perhaps fathers would place a higher value on traits that promote achievement.
了解到这个问题的后续研究会非常有趣。例如，母亲对子女的期望如何在不同的文化中有所不同。父亲的愿望又是怎样的呢？研究人员推测，父亲可能会对促进成就的特质提出更高的价值。
The study contains an odd anomaly. Four of the five Big Five personality traits were presented in such a way that having more of any of the related facets would be an obviously welcome thing – such as being more friendly (a facet of Extraversion), having more imagination (Openness), being more self-disciplined (Conscientious). However, in terms of a person’s emotionality, the researchers presented the relevant trait as a negative: as Neuroticism rather than as Emotional Stability, its positive polar opposite.
该研究包含一个奇怪的异常现象。大五人格特质中的四个呈现出以下的方式，即，拥有更多相关面向的特质是受欢迎的事情——比如更友善（外倾性的一个面向），有更多的想象力（开放性），更自律（责任心）。然而，就情绪特质而言，研究人员呈现了该维度的负面特征：例如神经质而不是情绪稳定性，这与积极的一极相反。
It’s little wonder then than zero mothers chose a facet of Neuroticism (such as self-consciousness or vulnerability) as the facet they would most like their child to have. Of course, if this trait had been framed as Emotional Stability (with positive facets, such as relaxed and not easily embarrassed), it’s possible many mothers would have placed a high priority on this trait. In fact, past research has shown that when young adults around the world are asked how they would most like to change their personality, most of them say that increasing their Emotional Stability (or reducing Neuroticism) is the change they would most like to make.
这也难怪没有妈妈选择神经质这一面向（如自我意识或脆弱性）作为她们最希望自己孩子拥有的特质。当然，如果这种特质被构建为情绪稳定（积极方面，如放松，不容易尴尬），可能许多母亲会优先选择这一特征。事实上，过去的研究表明，当世界各地的年轻人被问及他们最喜欢改变自己的个性时，大多数人说增加情绪稳定（或减少神经质）是他们最想做的改变。
One last, related point. Introverts may notice that the facets of Extraversion were all worded in a way biased in favour of the extroverted end of this personality dimension. It’s easy to imagine the results would have been different with some word changes to make the introverted end of this trait more appealing, such as listing “is content to spend time alone” and “happy to take it easy” as facets of Introversion.
最后一个相关点。性格内向的人可能会注意到外倾性的各个方面都偏向于人格的外向维度一端。如果改变使用一些更加吸引人的单词来描述内向的特质，例如列出“满足于独自打发时间”和“乐意轻松”作为内向的一个方面，那么很容易想象，结果会是不同的。
—Mothers want extraversion over conscientiousness or intelligence for their children
“大五”人格各维度与社会阶层的相关关系如图。
