Abstract
One of the major contributions of recent personality psychology is the finding that traits are related to each other in an organized hierarchy. To date, however, researchers have yet to investigate this hierarchy in nonhuman primates. Such investigations are critical in confirming the cross-species nature of trait personality helping to illuminate personality as neurobiologically-based and evolutionarily-derived dimensions of primate disposition. Investigations of potential genetic polymorphisms associated with hierarchical models of personality among nonhuman primates represent a critical first step. The current study examined the hierarchical structure of chimpanzee personality as well as sex-specific associations with a polymorphism in the promoter region of the vasopressin V1a receptor gene (AVPR1A), a gene associated with dispositional traits, among 174 chimpanzees. Results confirmed a hierarchical structure of personality across species and, despite differences in early rearing experiences, suggest a sexually dimorphic role of AVPR1A polymorphisms on hierarchical personality profiles at a higher-order level.
Highlights
One of the major contributions of recent personality psychology is the finding that traits are related to each other in an organized hierarchy
The five-factor model (FFM; e.g., [1,2]) is the most widely-used taxonomy for organizing personality traits among human and nonhuman primate populations, wellreplicated findings have led to an increased understanding of how two, three, four, and five-factor models of personality are hierarchically related among both human adults (e.g., [3,4]) and youth (e.g., [5,6])
The current study aimed to address this gap in the literature by examining the hierarchical structure of personality in a chimpanzee sample
Summary
One of the major contributions of recent personality psychology is the finding that traits are related to each other in an organized hierarchy. There has been some interest in the idea of a general factor of personality among nonhuman primates (e.g., [7]), researchers have yet to explicitly investigate the hierarchical nature of personality among nonhuman primates. Such investigations are critical for confirming the cross-species nature of trait personality and in further illuminating personality as neurobiologically-based and evolutionarily-derived dimensions of primate disposition. Given previous findings of associations between personality and variation in the vasopressin V1a receptor gene (AVPR1A) in both humans (e.g., [8]) and chimpanzees (e.g., [9]), we chose to examine associations with this gene
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