We really are a national of stereotypical workers.
A study found, shock, managers tend to be people who want to be in charge of things and artists are folk in desperate need a creative outlet. New research into 263 occupations has found stereotypes do stand up between jobs and the personalities of people working in them.
The study has been published by the American Psychological Association and sampled a whopping 68,540 individuals.
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It stated: “The mean scores for ‘Want to be in charge’ were the highest among different managers, team leaders, or senior government officials. While the lowest mean scores characterised roles that typically do not involve high-level decision making or leadership obligations, such as clerks, helpers and market salespersons.
“Expectedly, artists, actors and musicians tended to score the highest on ‘Need a creative outlet.’ And writers, journalists, and translators tended to score the highest on ‘Have a rich vocabulary’ and ‘Like to read.’”
(Image: Getty Images)
Boffins also found the highest scores for “Believe in the importance of art” was among actors, visual artists, musicians, film directors and designers. The results also showed that workers in the creative sector were more neurotic – more likely than average to experience negative feelings like anxiety and self-doubt.
It said: “For neuroticism, the highest mean scores characterised actors, artists, designers, composers, writers, translators and journalists. While the lowest mean scores described various managers and leaders, pilots, electronics engineers and databases/network professionals.”
The highest scores for extroverts were jobs like public relations, actors, event planners and fitness instructors, while lower scores came from lab technicians and computer software developers. Teachers, artists, writers and psychologists scored highest for openness, while plumbers, drivers and factory workers tended to record the lowest.
(Image: Getty Images)
When it came to agreeableness, the highest were electronics engineers, multimedia developers, psychologists, religious professionals and health professionals. Scoring the lowest were sales workers, entrepreneurs, estate agents and butchers.
Those workers with the most conscientiousness were ships’ engineers, dental assistants, construction and finance managers and health professionals.
The study authors concluded: “Such distributions of the Big Five domain scores across jobs are generally intuitive and appear to reflect the demands and characteristics of these professions, such as high openness scores among artists and writers and the high conscientiousness among engineers and finance managers.”
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