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Cited by 42Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorAnimal Behavior and ReproductionPersonality Traits and Psychology

Heritability and Fitness Correlates of Personality in the Ache, a Natural-Fertility Population in Paraguay

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Bailey, Drew H., Walker, Robert S., Blomquist, Gregory E., Hill, Kim R., Hurtado, A. Magdalena, Geary, David C.·2013·PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0059325PMC PMC3602062
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Abstract

The current study assessed the heritability of personality in a traditional natural-fertility population, the Ache of eastern Paraguay. Self-reports (n = 110) and other-reports (n = 66) on the commonly used Big Five Personality Inventory (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness) were collected. Self-reports did not support the Five Factor Model developed with Western samples, and did not correlate with other-reports for three of the five measured personality factors. Heritability was assessed using factors that were consistent across self- and other-reports and factors assessed using other-reports that showed reliabilities similar to those found in Western samples. Analyses of these items in combination with a multi-generation pedigree (n = 2,132) revealed heritability estimates similar to those found in most Western samples, although we were not able to separately estimate the influence of the common environment on these traits. We also assessed relations between personality and reproductive success (RS), allowing for a test of several mechanisms that might be maintaining heritable variation in personality. Phenotypic analyses, based largely on other-reports, revealed that extraverted men had higher RS than other men, but no other dimensions of personality predicted RS in either sex. Mothers with more agreeable children had more children, and parents mated assortatively on personality. Of the evolutionary processes proposed to maintain variation in personality, assortative mating, selective neutrality, and temporal variation in selection pressures received the most support. However, the current study does not rule out other processes affecting the evolution and maintenance of individual differences in human personality.

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  • The Big Five structure has replicated poorly when lexical analyses are conducted in diverse languages and in several small-scale societies.

    “Similarly, although others have not found as overt problems (see ref. 15), the Big Five structure has replicated poorly when lexical analyses are conducted in diverse languages (16) and in several small-scale societies (17–19).”

    From Simpson’s gender-equality paradox (2025) · cites this paper as [18]

    The Discussion’s Personality Assessment section reports that the five-factor model was a poor fit for personality data from the Ache, a small-scale society. But the Materials and Methods describe a Big Five inventory and confirmatory factor analysis, not a lexical analysis. The separate claim about diverse languages is attached to citation 16, not this paper. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Cited by

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Authors
Bailey, D. H., Walker, R. S., Blomquist, G. E., Hill, K. R., Hurtado, A. M., & Geary, D. C.
Affiliations
  • Carnegie Mellon University (US)
  • University of Missouri (US)
  • Arizona State University (US)
Corresponding author
Bailey, Drew H.
ORCID
Venue
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2013-03-19
Volume
8
Issue
3
Pages
e59325
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0059325
PMC
PMC3602062
OpenAlex
W1970617452
Cited by
42
References
4
Citations by year
2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
FWCI
5.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Arizona State University Library Digital Repository (Arizona State University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
Keywords
Big Five personality traits, Ache, reproductive success, assortative mating, selective neutrality
MeSH terms
Adult, Ethnicity, Biological Evolution, Female, Humans, Male, Marriage, Models, Psychological, Paraguay, Pedigree, Personality, Personality Inventory, Phenotype, Regression Analysis, Inheritance Patterns, Genetic Fitness

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