Beyond pride and prejudices: An empirical investigation of German Armed Forces soldiers' personality traits

• Mitchell's assumptions on the “Rescue Personality” also apply to the military.
• Personality traits of 235 soldiers (143 men and 92 women) were assessed.
• Soldiers scored lower on neuroticism, openness & agreeableness than a norm sample.
• Soldiers scored higher on extraversion and conscientiousness than a norm sample.
• We found two military personality clusters differing in gender ratio & resilience.

The construct of the “Rescue Personality” as claimed by Mitchell (1983) in the course of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) was investigated in a sample of 235 German soldiers. As hypothesized, soldiers scored lower on neuroticism, openness and agreeableness but higher on extraversion, conscientiousness, risk and competition seeking as well as resilience compared to a norm sample. Cluster analyses revealed two distinct personality subtypes within the military sample that differed significantly regarding gender ratio and resilience. Male soldiers scored lower on neuroticism and agreeableness but higher on risk and competition seeking and resilience than female soldiers. Military students and military medical personnel differed only in openness. Duration of military service was not associated with personality except for extraversion. The results indicate considerable personality differences between soldiers and the norm population that are largely consistent with the “Rescue Personality” concept. Implications of these personality differences and the existence of the two military personality subtypes for prevention, intervention and personnel selection are discussed.