Who’s more neurotic, dentists or engineers? Does it matter?

Just how neurotic do you have to be to work as an actor or singer? Well, according to a study published this year in the prestigious Journal of Applied Psychology, there are reliable differences in the average personality profiles across different occupations.

The researchers analysed personality and occupational data from over 68,000 people. Personality was measured using the popular “Big 5” model that captures neuroticism, extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness.

Crane operators were found to be some of the workers least open to new ideas. And good thing too.Credit: Bloomberg

The results were sometimes surprising, and at other times obvious. The highest average scorers on conscientiousness were ships’ engineers, dental assistants and therapists, and construction managers.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? We all want a diligent engineer checking the ship before the cruise, rather than some slap-dash unreliable type. The lowest average scorers on this trait were visual artists, followed worryingly by electronics engineers, and then graphic designers.

Who doesn’t like to work alongside agreeable colleagues? Well, sometimes we need those prepared to stand their ground and to be disagreeable if things are to get done properly. The highest scorers on this measure were electronics engineers, web and multimedia developers and then psychologists.

Should I be concerned that I started off studying electrical engineering before transferring to psychology, or does it explain what on the surface seems like quite a radical shift? The lowest scorers on agreeableness were “unspecified sales workers” – well, you might be a bit narky if you were told you were unspecified. The self-employed and entrepreneurs came next.

No prizes for guessing that advertising types, actors and event planners (followed by fitness trainers) score the highest on extraversion.

The most open to new ideas were, unsurprisingly the visual artists, followed by language teachers, authors, and, coming a very close fourth psychologists. If you want to find those less open to new ideas, one must look to the heavens to find crane operators.

Makes sense, you don’t want them up there in the sky suddenly deciding to experiment with centrifugal force. Despite plumbers spending their days opening blockages, this does not apparently extend to their minds, coming in second on the lowest scorers on openness.

No prizes for guessing that advertising types, actors and event planners (followed by fitness trainers) score the highest on extraversion. And probably none either for guessing the IT crowd score lowest, with electronics engineers, software developers and web developers taking up residency in the basement positions.

Now what about that neuroticism factor I mentioned at the beginning you ask? I was trying to avoid that one given my partner (who is the least neurotic person I know) falls into the 1st and 4th highest categories, which are actors, visual artists, graphic designers and then musicians and singers.

Authors and journalists are right up there too. The lowest average scorers on the neuroticism scale were database managers, health service workers and, very reassuringly, aircraft pilots. There is nothing more disconcerting than an airline pilot flouncing off the job because someone has stolen their grand final approach to an airport and forced them into a holding pattern.

Before we get too carried away with these differences, the authors of this research point out that there is substantial overlap in the personality scores even between the highest scoring and lowest scoring jobs for each personality factor.

In other words, there is a diversity of personality types within each occupation. This again makes sense because people find themselves in jobs and remain in jobs for a complex array of often changing reasons and circumstances that have little or no relationship to their personalities.

On the other hand, maybe I am just trying to be agreeable because I am an organisational psychologist.

Dr Jim Bright, FAPS, is a director at IWCA and is Director of Evidence & Impact at edtech start up BECOME Education. Email to [e-mail]. Follow him on X/Twitter @DrJimBright

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