A reanalysis of national intelligence and personality: The role of the general factor of personality

• We reanalyzed data on the relation between nation-level intelligence and personality.
• A General Factor of Personality (GFP) could be extracted from the nation-level data.
• The nation-level GFP was positively correlated with nation-level intelligence.
• Most of the covariance between personality and intelligence was explained by the GFP.

The results of Stolarski, Zajenkowski, and Meisenberg (2013) that were recently published in Intelligence were reanalyzed. Stolarski et al. (2013) found significant associations between the rater-reported nation-level Big Five personality traits agreeableness, extraversion, and openness and intelligence. The present reanalysis reveals that the association between nation-level personality and intelligence is primarily accounted for by the shared variance of the personality traits, also referred to as the General Factor of Personality (GFP), and that the association was not a function of acquiescent responding. Analysis of additional personality data based on self-reports failed to produce meaningful results.