Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2024 Jun;26(6):1239-1249.
doi: 10.1111/codi.16993. Epub 2024 Apr 30.

Dissecting the surgeon's personality: cross-cultural comparisons in Western Europe

V Q Sier  1 , C N Bisset  2   3 , D A J Tesselaar  1 , R F Schmitz  4 , A Schepers  1 , S J Moug  5   6   7 , J R van der Vorst  1 ; SUPER and Plato Project Collaborators
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Dissecting the surgeon's personality: cross-cultural comparisons in Western Europe

V Q Sier et al. Colorectal Dis. 2024 Jun.

Abstract

Aim: The surgeon's personality contributes to variation in surgical decision-making. Previous work on surgeon personality has largely been reserved to Anglo-Saxon studies, with limited international comparisons. In this work we built upon recent work on gastrointestinal surgeon personality and aimed to detect international variations.

Method: Gastrointestinal surgeons from the UK and the Netherlands were invited to participate in validated personality assessments (44-item, 60-item Big Five Inventory; BFI). These encompass personality using five domains (open-mindedness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and negative emotionality) with three subtraits each. Mean differences in domain factors were calculated between surgeon and nonsurgeon populations from normative data using independent-samples t-tests, adjusted for multiple testing. The items from the 44-item and 60-item BFI were compared between UK and Dutch surgeons and classified accordingly: identical (n = 16), analogous (n = 3), comparable (n = 12).

Results: UK (n = 78, 61.5% male) and Dutch (n = 280, 65% male) gastrointestinal surgeons had marked differences in the domains of open-mindedness, extraversion and agreeableness compared with national normative datasets. Moreover, although surgeons had similar levels of emotional stability, country of work influenced differences in specific BFI items. For example, Netherlands-based surgeons scored highly on questions related to sociability and organization versus UK-based surgeons who scored highly on creative imagination (p < 0.0001).

Conclusion: In a first cross-cultural setting, we identified country-specific personality differences in gastrointestinal surgeon cohorts across domain and facet levels. Given the variation between Dutch and UK surgeons, understanding country-specific data could be useful in guiding personality research in healthcare. Furthermore, we advocate that future work adopts consensus usage of the five factor model.

Keywords: Big Five; five‐factor model; surgeon personality; surgical personality.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Sier VQ, Schmitz RF, Schepers A, van der Vorst JR. Exploring the surgical personality. Surgeon. 2022;172:1358–1363.
    1. Bisset CN, McKee T, Cawley M, Tilling E, Moug SJ. A systematic review of the abdominal surgeon's personality: exploring common traits in Western populations. Behav Sci (Basel). 2020;11(1):2.
    1. Sier VQ, Schmitz RF, Putter H, Schepers A, van der Vorst JR. The big five: studying the surgical personality. Surgery. 2022;172(5):1358–1363.
    1. Bisset CN, Ferguson E, MacDermid E, Stein SL, Yassin N, Dames N, et al. Exploring variation in surgical practice: does surgeon personality influence anastomotic decision‐making? Br J Surg. 2022;109(11):1156–1163.
    1. Bisset CN, Dames N, Oliphant R, Alasadi A, Anderson D, Parson S, et al. Exploring shared surgical decision‐making from the patient's perspective: is the personality of the surgeon important? Colorectal Dis. 2020;22(12):2214–2221.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources