Adult Non-Cognitive Personality Trait Malleability
Dynamic human capital accumulation models hypothesize that non-cognitive personality traits crystallize in early childhood, making adult workplace interventions ineffective at shifting fundamental psychological traits.
Picture this
Think of adult personality traits like set concrete paths across a public park. Structured workplace practice—such as role-playing assertive communication and executing daily goal-setting—acts like repaving those paths, proving that adults can forge wider, more confident walking routes even late in life.
What the evidence says
Soft skills training produced a statistically significant increase in extraversion of 0.164 standard deviations (p < 0.05) in the experimental sample, as well as a 0.20 standard deviation increase in extraversion and grit (p < 0.05) in the propensity score-matched sample, with zero impact on placebo cognitive tests (arithmetic and digit span recall).
- Who
- N = 621 female garment workers in the primary RCT survey sample, plus N = 675 workers in a supplemental propensity score-matched sample in Bengaluru, India.
- How
- Randomized controlled trial (RCT) cross-sectional survey and supplemental propensity score inverse probability weighted survey assessing Big Five personality dimensions, grit, and autonomous motivation.
What to do
Design structured workplace role-playing and goal-setting sessions to systematically expand adult non-cognitive traits such as extraversion and grit among frontline labor forces.
From the source
"P.A.C.E. treatment does have a large positive and statistically significant impact on extraversion... supplemental propensity score-matched data reveal higher grit, openness, autonomy, and motivation among trained workers."
Returns_to_On_the_job_Soft_Skills_Training_Adhvarya_Kala_Nyshadham.pdf