Big-Five personality factors and interpersonal trust in established marriages

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of husbands' and wives' Big-Five personality characteristics on their own (i.e., actor effects) as well as on their partner's (i.e., partner effects) degree of trust in one another. Data were collected from 288 husband–wife couples with at least two adolescent children. Both self-reported and partner-reported personality characteristics were analyzed using two complementary approaches: hierarchical regression analyses and Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) analyses. Results were dependent on the type of personality rating used. Actor effects and partner effects were inflated when using self-reports and partner-reports, respectively. Controlling for shared rater variance, our findings suggest that trust should be conceived as a property of the dyad, rather than as an individual characteristic of the dyad members. Conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness emerged as the most important predictors of dyadic trust. Husbands' and wives' personality characte...