Research pick: Genius is part inspiration, part perspiration, but also a whole lot of personality - "The association between personality traits and perceived innovativeness"

An individual’s assessment of their own creativity and their assumptions about how others judge them are driven by different personality traits, according to research published in the International Journal of Business Innovation and Research. The study look at the so-called Big Five personality traits among participants and found that the perceptions of how innovative a person feels operate as a separate psychological construct in terms of how organisations identify and support creative work.

The Big Five model categorises personality into openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The researchers found that openness and extraversion were the strongest predictors of both self-perceived “innovativeness” and a person’s perception of how they feel others view their innovativeness. These two traits are commonly linked to imagination, curiosity and sociability, seem to shape a person’s confidence in generating new ideas but also their expectation when it comes to peer recognition.

Other traits had more uneven effects. Conscientiousness, defined as the tendency to be organised and dependable, and neuroticism, reflecting emotional sensitivity and susceptibility to stress, did not increase the belief in creativity. Yet, both these traits were associated with higher “meta-perception”, implying that individuals who score highly on them may be viewed as innovative by others even if they do not see themselves that way.

Agreeableness, associated with cooperation and consideration for others, gave the most complex result. Its influence on perceived innovativeness shifted depending on whether participants rated themselves or speculated about external judgements. A more detailed analysis suggests that agreeable individuals had a heightened attentiveness to social cues, and that this may widen the gap between their inner assessment of their own creativity and their expectations of how others see them.

The work thus highlights the distinction between traits that foster idea generation, openness and extraversion, and those that matter in turning ideas into workable solutions, where conscientiousness often plays a critical role. For organisations, the study points to a need for greater nuance in how a company identifies innovative potential. Relying solely on an employee’s self-confidence or on the visibility of outspoken, idea-driven personalities might risk overlooking quieter contributors whose strengths lie in implementing or refining ideas, for instance.

Jirásek, M. and Sudzina, F. (2025) ‘The association between personality traits and perceived innovativeness’, Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp.314–331.