Marrying Someone With This Specific Personality Trait Is Basically Like Marrying Into Money, According To Research
Researchers say marrying this type of person could net you an extra $4,000 per year!
Breslavtsev Oleg | Shutterstock When you think about the type of person who would make an ideal spouse, you might have a few predictable requirements in mind. Or, at the very least, you've probably given some serious thought to the list of qualities and characteristics you'd like your ideal husband or wife to possess.
Your list might include things like common interests, similar life goals, matched levels of ambition, and intense physical attraction. The possibilities are truly endless. But did you know that it's been scientifically proven that marrying someone with one very specific personality trait can help you boost your salary by as much as $4,000 per year?
Research found that marrying a spouse who is conscientious can help you earn more money.
Yes, you read that correctly. Researchers Brittany C. Solomon and Joshua J. Jackson from Washington University in St. Louis found that a person who marries a conscientious spouse is 50% more likely to get a promotion than someone whose spouse is more careless.
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The findings from their 2014 study, titled "The Long Reach of One’s Spouse: Spouses’ Personality Influences Occupational Success," were based on an exploration of the way in which someone's share of the Big Five personality traits "seep[s] into their spouses’ workplace."
For those of you not yet in the know, the Big Five personality traits are:
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Conscientiousness in a spouse can impact the other spouse's entire career, including promotions and job satisfaction.
After surveying a sample of over 4,500 married individuals, the team found that the only one of the Big Five traits that had a significant impact on a spouse's employment was conscientiousness, which they said, "turns out to predict employee income, number of promotions, and job satisfaction, regardless of gender."
"To put the income finding in dollar terms," explained Andrew O'Connell of Harvard Business Review, "with every 1-standard-deviation increase in a spouse’s conscientiousness, an individual is likely to earn approximately $4,000 more per year, averaging across all ages and occupations."
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Essentially, what this means is that true success in anything is significantly influenced by an individual's support system. And that's both a beautiful and kind of scary thing. What it should, most importantly be, however, is a flag for employers to remember that the people who work for them are more than just desk or cubicle fillers, and what is going on in their "real" lives, plays a bigger role in their performance than simply someone just being good at their job or not.
A conscientious spouse is both goal-oriented and thoughtful.
What does it truly mean to be conscientious, though? According to Psychology Today, a conscientious person "reflects the tendency to be responsible, organized, hard-working, goal-directed, and to adhere to norms and rules." Adding, "A conscientious person is good at self-regulation and impulse control. This trait influences whether you will set and keep long-range goals, deliberate over choices, behave cautiously or impulsively, and take obligations to others seriously."
It stands to reason, then, that a conscientious spouse would help inspire their partner toward success. They are basically the coach of the partnership. People who are conscientious are organized, responsible, less impulsive, and good at planning.
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Still, you might be asking yourself how your uber-organized wife or husband can impact your career, but O'Connell laid it out in the simplest terms. Aside from their habits and driven attitude simply rubbing off on you, which will inevitably happen in any relationship, they take on the bulk of the time-consuming tasks and burdens, which frees up more time for you to focus on work.
Guess what happens when you aren't stressed about all the other stuff you have to do when you get home? You're happier at work, your stress is lower, and your relationship is stronger. The researchers wrote, "These associations occurred because more conscientious partners perform more household tasks, exhibit more pragmatic behaviors that their spouses are likely to emulate, and promote a more satisfying home life, enabling their spouses to focus more on work. These results demonstrate that the dispositional characteristics of the person one marries influence important aspects of one’s professional life."
This all sounds pretty great on paper, but how can this information be put to even better use on a larger scale? Solomon, herself, suggested that if employers better understand the positive effects our personal relationships can have on our performance at work, "they might be more receptive to policies like flextime and telecommuting that make it easier for employees to spend time with their significant others."
Well, how about that? Remote work for the win ... yet again.
Nicole Weaver is a senior writer for Showbiz Cheat Sheet whose work has been featured in New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, and more.
