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Regular version of the site
Book
Gendering Place and Affect: Attachment, Disruption and Belonging

Simpson A., Simpson R., Baker D. T. et al.

Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024.

Article
The Effect of Political Regime on the Association of Values with Subjective Well-Being

Ponarin E., Afanasyeva Y.

Journal of Happiness Studies. 2025. Vol. 26.

Book chapter
To Be a Homeless Woman in Russia: Coping Strategies and Meanings of ‘Home’ on the Street

Evgeniia Kuziner.

In bk.: Gendering Place and Affect: Attachment, Disruption and Belonging. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024. P. 154-166.

Working paper
Basic Human Values During the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role of Pandemic Experience

Violetta Korsunova.

SSRN Working Paper Series. SSRN Working Paper Series. Social Science Research Network, 2024

December, 5 — Regular Seminar

Event ended
Topic: Comparative Studies of the Evolution of Personality: The Complex Five Factor Model Versus a Focus on Simple Facets
Speaker: Michael Minkov (professor of cross-cultural studies, Varna University of Management; principal investigator, Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, HSE University)

The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next regular seminar, which will be held as a zoom session on December, 5 at 02:30 p.m. CET (04:30 p.m. Moscow time, GMT+3). Michael Minkov (Varna University of Management; LCSR, HSE University) will deliver a report "Comparative Studies of the Evolution of Personality: The Complex Five Factor Model Versus a Focus on Simple Facets".

To participate, please, register via the link.

Abstract:

The study of animal personality is a rapidly expanding field, now covering more than 200 species, some of them multiple times. One of the reasons for that is the notion that knowledge of animal personality helps us understand human personality and its evolution. Many studies of animal personality, especially primate personality, use the human Five Factor Model (FFM), claim that some or all of the human factors replicate, at least in some primates, and attempt to trace the evolution of those factors back to the period before the separation of humans from other apes, and even earlier. I argue that the human FFM is inappropriate for the study of any animal personality since much of the FFM consists of uniquely human characteristics that are impossible without a human mind functioning in a human culture. Besides, the human FFM replicates very poorly, even within studies of chimpanzees and across such studies: their authors disregard even the most basic invariance criteria, such as percentage of items with highest loadings on the same factor. I suggest focusing on simple FFM facets rather than complex traits. Some of these facets (activity/energy, curiosity/exploration, sociability, anxiety/fearfulness) are meaningful descriptors not only of primates but also of much simpler organisms. This simplification would allow tracing the history of those facets from the simplest organisms (anemones) to the most complex (primates, including humans). 

Everyone interested is invited!

Working language is English.