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. 2022 Dec;90(6):1057-1069.
doi: 10.1111/jopy.12715. Epub 2022 Apr 8.

Character strengths and fluid intelligence

André Kretzschmar  1 , Lisa Wagner  1   2 , Fabian Gander  3 , Jennifer Hofmann  4 , René T Proyer  5 , Willibald Ruch  1
Affiliations

Character strengths and fluid intelligence

André Kretzschmar et al. J Pers. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: Research on the associations between cognitive and noncognitive personality traits has widely neglected character strengths, that means positively and morally valued personality traits that constitute good character.

Method: The present study aimed to bridge this gap by studying the associations between character strengths and fluid intelligence using different operationalizations of character strengths (including self- and informant-reports) and fluid intelligence in children, adolescents, and adults.

Results: The results, based on four samples (N = 193/290/330/324), suggested that morally valued personality traits are independent of fluid intelligence, with the exception of love of learning, which showed small but robust positive relationships with fluid intelligence across all samples.

Conclusions: Nonetheless, we argue for further research on the associations with other cognitive abilities and interactions between character strengths and intelligence when examining their relationships with external criteria.

Keywords: VIA-IS; VIA-Youth; character strengths; cognitive ability; validity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Willibald Ruch is a Senior Scientist for the VIA Institute on Character, which holds the copyright to the VIA Inventory of Strengths.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Latent correlations of character strengths and intelligence. Beauty = appreciation of beauty and excellence; Soc. Intelligence = social intelligence. Correlations and 95% CI are displayed in Supplement Table S1. All correlations are controlled for age and gender
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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