What Is the General Factor of Personality and How Does It Work? |
“Personalient”1 is a term coined to describe how much an individual possesses of the “general factor of personality” (GFP). According to Satoshi Kanazawa, author of a recent study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (2025), GFP is analogous to the general factor of intelligence (g)—but applies to the effectiveness of one’s personality.
Why is personalience2 important? As Kanazawa explains, regardless of the personality model employed—whether the widely recognized Five Factor Model (OCEAN: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) or less common yet valid personality frameworks—GFP consistently accounts for the predictive power of these models. While not universally accepted among personality researchers, there is compelling evidence that a single factor underpins much of what makes our personality function effectively.
Kanazawa highlights that GFP has been significantly associated with overall happiness and well-being in the small but growing body of literature. Why might this be? He attributes the connection to the “savanna theory of happiness,” a concept that he helped develop, grounded in evolutionary psychology:
“The theory contends that individuals' levels of happiness fluctuate in response not only to the current consequences of any given situation (what it means now) but also to its ancestral consequences (what it would have meant for our ancestors on the African savanna during the Pleistocene Epoch, 1.6 M to 12 K years ago) because the human brain is predisposed to perceive the current environment as if it were the ancestral environment. The events and circumstances that made our ancestors happy then still make us happy today, and the events and circumstances that made our ancestors unhappy then still make us unhappy today.”
In essence, we are evolutionarily designed for less dense social environments, more basic survival challenges, and greater exposure to nature. Conversely, we are less adapted to the complexities of modern life, particularly urbanization, competitive workplaces, and diminished physical activity. We didn't evolve to hit KPIs or meet quarterly performance review metrics; indeed, the unnatural "dopamine hit" from such gamification arguably can drive us into burnout, or worse.
However, the ability to navigate social relationships effectively remains as critical as ever, since it has always been linked to accessing the resources necessary for survival and flourishing. Personalience is uniquely associated with this capacity for social functioning, beyond the influence of individual personality traits, and more personalient individuals do better.
In two studies, Kanazawa investigated why personalience might drive happiness, exploring causal mechanisms through the lens of the savanna theory. He tested two hypotheses: first, are more personalient people happier? Second, considering happiness levels over time, what role do genetics play in the personalient factor?
Using data from the UK National Child Development Study (NCDS), which tracked over 15,000 individuals born in March 1958, Kanazawa analyzed personality and life satisfaction data collected at nine sweeps, the last in this analysis from 2013. Personality was measured using the Five Factor Model, from which GFP was derived, at age 51.
GFP consistently predicted life satisfaction across ages, with each step increase in GFP corresponding to a 30-60% higher likelihood of leveling up life satisfaction. GFP emerged as the strongest predictor of happiness, surpassing variables such as sex, IQ, education, and income. Additionally, earlier life satisfaction significantly predicted future happiness, amplifying the odds of long-term satisfaction three to four-fold. Kanazawa concluded that the impact of GFP on happiness was more likely tied to successful social and interpersonal relationships rather than genetic factors, which tend to remain stable–whereas GFP built on itself, suggesting environmental factors at play3.
Kanazawa next analyzed data from the US Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which followed over 20,000 participants from their teenage years in 1994-1995 to their mid-to-late 30s (where about 12,300 participants remained in the study). Similar measures of health, happiness, and personality were assessed, with GFP again calculated.
GFP again strongly predicted happiness and life satisfaction over time, even after accounting for other variables. Each increase in GFP was linked to a 20%-60% rise in happiness. Notably, current satisfaction was more closely tied to GFP than to past happiness, underscoring the potential importance of daily social experiences over genetic factors in determining well-being.
Research on the Five Factor Model indicates that personality traits can change through deliberate practice, as discussed in How to Polish Your Personality (Psychology Today, Brenner, 2021), which explores research on changing Five Factor Model traits. Similarly, studies on late-life generativity (e.g., Psychology Today, Brenner, 2024) show a strong link to social factors, further supporting the importance of personalience. Encouragingly, the findings suggest that personalience is not purely genetic—individuals might cultivate GFP through enhanced social skills and emotional intelligence.
Becoming more personalient, if possible, would vary from person to person and might flow from focusing on specific personality traits. Taking a personal inventory would help identify areas for growth, with even small adjustments today potentially yielding significant dividends in the future. For example, individuals with antagonistic tendencies might benefit from cultivating agreeableness, while overly agreeable individuals might need to develop assertiveness tempered with diplomacy.
Likewise, the trait of Openness to Experience itself has been independently associated with giftedness (Psychology Today, Brenner, 2021). Increasing openness might help unlock greater overall capacity for change and allow us to hear others' perspectives more fully. Given how difficult it can be to see one's own areas of strength and challenge, it is often necessary to have help from others in pursuing self-assessment and growth. Being less neurotic, and more emotionally stable, for example, would also help us take in what we need to hear. And not to knock the value of introversion, being more extroverted as appropriate tends to enhance social effectiveness.
Further research is needed to explore the broader implications of personalience for individual health and well-being. This study adds to the GFP story. Personalience is closely connected with life satisfaction and that influence snowballs over time; even small increases early in life appear to amplify over time, a virtuous cycle of social and emotional intelligence which makes intuitive sense.
References
1. "Personalique" has also been proposed as a term for GFP.
2. I'm making up the noun form of "personalient" for readability.
3. Though it is possible the epigenetic factors, and Gene X Environment X Time factors, may paint a more complicated picture given this study did not directly look at genetics among relatives.
Citations and Further Reading
How to Polish Your Personality
Machine-Learning Uncovers Drivers of Late-Life Generativity
One Personality Trait Distinguishes Gifted People
Satoshi Kanazawa, More personalient people are happier, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 236, 2025, 112924, ISSN 0191-8869, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112924.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886924003842)