The sensitive, imaginative, articulate art student and conservative, cool, numerate science student: Individual differences in art and science students

•A large group of students of the arts and sciences completed personality and intelligence tests.•There were numerous sex differences on both tests.•There were many differences between arts and science students particularly on the intelligence tests.•Stereotypes of arts and science students were confirmed.

In all 794 young people aged around 30 yrs completed three intelligence (Raven's Progressive matrices: GMA Numerical and GMA Verbal) and one personality inventory (16PF). They were all graduates and 173 were identified clearly as Arts graduates and 518 as Science students. There were various sex differences on all measures. All seven hypotheses were confirmed. An analysis of co-variance controlling for sex showed eight (of 16) significant trait differences and significant differences on all three intelligence test measures. Compared to Science students, Arts students scored higher on Factors A (Warmth), I (Sensitivity), L (Vigilance), M (Abstractness), Q1 (Open to Change), T (Tension) and GMA Verbal but lower on Factor G (Rule Conscientiousness), Q3 (Perfectionism), Raven's Progressive Matrices and GMA Numerical. Discriminant analysis showed the top five measures to be Factor I (Sensitivity), M (Abstractness), student sex, GMA numerical and Raven's Progressive Matrices. Logistic regressions confirmed these results. Implications for vocational guidance are considered along with limitations of this research.