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1. Examining the Relationship between Mindfulness, Personality, and National Culture for Construction Safety

   https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094998  

   Solomon, Tomay; Esmaeili, Behzad (May 2021, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health)

   null (Ed.)

   The construction industry still leads the world as one of the sectors with the most work-related injuries and worker fatalities. Considering that one of the barriers to improving construction safety is its stressful working environment, which increases risk of inattentiveness among construction workers, safety managers seek practices to measure and enhance worker focus and reduce stress, such as mindfulness. Considering the important role of mindfulness in curbing frequency and severity of incidents, researchers are interested in understanding the relationship between mindfulness and other common, more static human characteristics. As a result, this study examines the relationship between mindfulness and such variables as personality and national culture in the context of construction safety. Collecting data from 155 participants, this study used elastic net regression to examine the influence of independent (i.e., personality and national culture) variables on the dependent (i.e., mindfulness) variable. To validate the results of the regression, 10-fold cross-validation was conducted. The results reveal that certain personality traits (e.g., conscientiousness, neuroticism, and agreeableness) and national cultural dimensions (e.g., uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and collectivism) can be used as predictors of mindfulness for individuals. Since mindfulness has shown to increase safety and work performance, safety managers can utilize these variables to identify at-risk workers so that additional safety training can be provided to enhance work performance and improve safety outcomes. The results of this study will inform future work into translating personal and mindfulness characteristics into factors that predict specific elements of unsafe human behaviors. 

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2. Environmental heterogeneity modifies the link between personality and survival in fluctuating small mammal populations

   https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14037  

   Brehm, Allison M.; Mortelliti, Alessio (December 2023, Journal of Animal Ecology)

   Abstract Despite numerous studies examining the fitness consequences of animal personalities, predictions concerning the relationship between personality and survival are not consistent with empirical observations. Theory predicts that individuals who are risky (i.e. bold, active and aggressive) should have higher rates of mortality; however, empirical evidence shows high levels of variation in behaviour–survival relationships in wild populations.We suggest that this mismatch between predictions under theory and empirical observations results from environmental contingencies that drive heterogeneity in selection. This uncertainty may constrain any universal directional relationships between personality traits and survival. Specifically, we hypothesize that spatiotemporal fluctuations in perceived risk that arise from variability in refuge abundance and competitor density alter the relationship between personality traits and survival.In a large‐scale manipulative experiment, we trapped four small mammal species in five subsequent years across six forest stands treated with different management practices in Maine, United States. Stands all occur within the same experimental forest but contain varying amounts of refuge and small mammal densities fluctuate over time and space. We quantified the effects of habitat structure and competitor density on the relationship between personality traits and survival to assess whether directional relationships differed depending on environmental contingencies.In the two most abundant species, deer mice and southern red‐backed voles, risky behaviours (i.e. higher aggression and boldness) predicted apparent monthly survival probability. Mice that were more aggressive (less docile) had higher survival. Voles that were bolder (less timid) had higher survival, but in the risky forest stands only. Additionally, traits associated with stress coping and de‐arousal increased survival probability in both species at high small mammal density but decreased survival at low density. In the two less abundant study species, there was no evidence for an effect of personality traits on survival.Our field experiment provides partial support for our hypothesis: that spatiotemporal fluctuations in refuge abundance and competitor density alter the relationship between personality traits and survival. Our findings also suggest that behaviours associated with stress coping and de‐arousal may be subject to density‐dependent selection and should be further assessed and incorporated into theory. 

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3. Characterizing the personality and gray matter volume of chimpanzees that exhibit autism-related socio-communicative phenotypes

   https://doi.org/10.1017/pen.2023.8  

   Hopkins, William D; Mulholland, Michele; Latzman, Robert D (January 2023, Personality Neuroscience)

   Abstract Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by stereotypies or repetitive behaviors and impairments in social behavior and socio-communicative skills. One hallmark phenotype of ASD is poor joint attention skills compared to neurotypical controls. In addition, individuals with ASD have lower scores on several of the Big 5 personality dimensions, including Extraversion. Here, we examine these traits in a nonhuman primate model (chimpanzees;Pan troglodytes) to further understand the relationship between personality and joint attention skills, as well as the genetic and neural systems that contribute to these phenotypes. We used archival data including receptive joint attention (RJA) performance, personality based on caretaker ratings, and magnetic resonance images from 189 chimpanzees. We found that, like humans, chimpanzees who performed worse on the RJA task had lower Extraversion scores. We also found that joint attention skills and several personality dimensions, including Extraversion, were significantly heritable. There was also a borderline significant genetic correlation between RJA and Extraversion. A conjunction analysis examining gray matter volume showed that there were five main brain regions associated with both higher levels of Extraversion and social cognition. These regions included the right posterior middle and superior temporal gyrus, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal sulcus, and left superior frontal sulcus, all regions within the social brain network. Altogether, these findings provide further evidence that chimpanzees serve as an excellent model for understanding the mechanisms underlying social impairment related to ASD. Future research should further examine the relationship between social cognition, personality, genetics, and neuroanatomy and function in nonhuman primate models. 

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4. Finding “H” in HRI: Examining Human Personality Traits, Robotic Anthropomorphism, and Robot Likeability in Human-Robot Interaction

   Arora, A. S.; Fleming, M.; Arora, A.; Taras, V.; Xu, J. (January 2021, International journal of intelligent information technologies)

   null (Ed.)

   The study examines the relationship between the big five personality traits (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) and robot likeability and successful HRI implementation in varying human-robot interaction (HRI) situations. Further, this research investigates the influence of human-like attributes in robots (a.k.a. robotic anthropomorphism) on the likeability of robots. The research found that robotic anthropomorphism positively influences the relationship between human personality variables (e.g., extraversion and agreeableness) and robot likeability in human interaction with social robots. Further, anthropomorphism positively influences extraversion and robot likeability during industrial robotic interactions with humans. Extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism were found to play a significant role. This research bridges the gap by providing an in-depth understanding of the big five human personality traits, robotic anthropomorphism, and robot likeability in social-collaborative robotics. 

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5. Personality dimensions, global and ethical perspectives and engineering students’ ethical decisions

   https://doi.org/10.5821/conference-9788412322262.1345  

   Snyder, Samyel; Bairaktarova, Diana; Giménez Carbó, Ester (September 2022, Personality dimensions, global and ethical perspectives and engineering students’ ethical decisions)

   Motivation is an important predictor of ethical awareness; however, it is not easy to assess. The goal of our study is to examine the relationship between motivation and ethical awareness in engineering students. We focus on two personality measures: person-thing orientation and spheres of control and test their association with ethical awareness using engineering scenarios that present ethical dilemmas. We predict that engineering students who score higher on the personality dimension of personthing orientation will display more ethical awareness than those who score lower. We also predict that students with a higher level of personal control will also display more ethical awareness. Two groups of students were involved in the study. Group 1 was formed by fifty-three first-year engineering students from University in the United States and Group 2 was represented by sixty-four sophomore engineering students in Engineering School in Spain. Students worked individually on case studies that presenting ethical dilemmas; they were asked to write short essays describing how they would respond to each situation. Then the essays were analyzed using an ethical reasoning and a global awareness rubric. Results revealed that 1) the context/nature of the students’ responses to the case study varied greatly, 2) personality traits and global and ethical perspective, all correlate to students’ ethical decisions as measured by their responses to the case studies scores, 3) there is an alignment between the SOC and the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI) dimensions that merits further exploration. 

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