This article was written by Travis M of Clearer Thinking, in partnership with Consensus. Shakespeare’s tragedies nearly all feature a protagonist with a fatal personality flaw that leads to their downfall. For Macbeth, it’s his ambition. For Othello, it’s his jealousy. What would yours be? The idea of a fatal personality flaw that leads to ruin is a well-established trope in tragic storytelling (going all the way back to the ancient Greeks), but it’s also a trope in the things we say to ourselves - things like: “If I wasn’t so anxious, I’d have a better social life” “If I wasn’t so lacking in self-discipline, I’d have a better job” These kinds of thoughts point to a deeper question: What if you could get rid of your fatal flaw? What if you could be more charismatic or open to new experiences? Less vulnerable to stress, or less self-conscious? If that sounds appealing to you, you wouldn’t be alone: Studies indicate that most people want to change their personality in some way. That shouldn’t be surprising, given that studies also consistently find that personality traits predict all sorts of outcomes, from health to satisfaction with life, to relationships, to jobs, and more. It’s easy to wonder whether things might go better if you could just have a little more of some personality trait or a little less of another. So, can you change the personality traits you don't want?  Fortunately, the answer is “yes" (with some caveats). In this article, we've partnered with Consensus, a search engine for scientific research, to explore what the science says about personality change. In combination with more traditional research methods, we used their Deep Search feature, which combed through their database of over 220 million papers, identified the strongest research, and synthesized the findings. We’ve organized this article around four fundamental questions: 

1. What is personality?

2. Should you want to change your personality?

3. Can personalities change?

4. How can you change yours?

The result is a selection of evidence-based suggestions for how to change your personality in the ways you want.

What is personality?

The most common scientific way to think about personality is as a person's relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. In this article, we’re going to break that down further by using the ‘Big Five’ model (sometimes called the ‘Five Factor Model’) of personality, which is the most widely used and empirically validated model of personality in personality science. It breaks personality down into five main traits, each with its own subtraits. The five main traits are consistent across all versions of the Big Five, but there is some variation in the subtraits that psychologists use. Here is a breakdown that lists all of the main Big Five traits and some of the most popular subtraits:

You can think of this Big Five framework as the most general classification of personality traits. There are all sorts of more specific personality traits (e.g., self-esteem), but studies find evidence that many (though not all) of those can be “reasonably be labeled as facets of the Big Five.” This makes it a good framework for thinking about changes you can make to your personality as it suggests that if there’s something specific you want to work on, there’s a good chance it’s covered by some of what we talk about below. If we don’t mention it explicitly, it’s worth thinking about which of the Big Five it falls under and consider the strategies we discuss for targeting that. You can discover how much of each trait you have by taking a free personality test like Clearer Thinking’s Ultimate Personality Test, which combines 4 popular personality frameworks (including the Big Five) into one scientifically-designed test. Of course, how much of each trait you exhibit will vary from moment to moment and context to context. For example, studies find that “when a person was in a situation that was higher in Sociality, the person acted more extraverted than he or she normally might.” That’s why it’s useful to know about the difference between traits and states.  In simple terms, you can think of it like the difference between climate and weather. The weather in your neighborhood is what’s going on outside your window right now. It varies from moment to moment and day to day. But the climate in your neighborhood is the long term pattern of weather in that area. Similarly, your personality states are what you’re like right now (which may depend on your mood today, what environment you're in, how much you slept last night, etc.), whereas your personality traits are long-term patterns in your states - your average tendencies of thinking, feeling, and behaving (which tend to be stable over time). This view of traits is known as the ‘density distributions model’ of states. If you want to change your personality, you probably want to do more than just change your states. You probably want to change your traits. This means you’ll want to do something deeper than just changing the situation you’re in. But what could that be? Read on to find out!

But Should You Want to Change Your Personality?

While there is value in accepting yourself as you are, there is also value in striving to be who you want to be. Some people won't want to change anything about their personalities, and that can be fine. But there are reasons why it might be valuable to pursue doing so. Your personality affects how your life plays out. There is a vast, robust body of evidence showing connections between Big Five personality traits and life outcomes. Let’s take each of the Big Five traits, one at a time.  The findings below are mostly correlational, meaning we can’t be sure that the personality trait in question is causing the outcome, rather than the outcome causing the personality trait or some third factor causing both. So changing the personality trait won't always necessarily get you the corresponding implied benefit. But, on the other hand:

1. There are often plausible causal mechanisms suggested in the literature

2. Some findings are supported by intervention studies that give more direct evidence of causation

3. Many of these patterns are strong enough that personality interventions are widely considered a promising way to improve life outcomes, even if the causal story is not always air tight

Let's jump into the findings:

See PDF for links to studies: Personality Traits And The Life Outcomes Associated With Them

Each of the links in the table above is to a meta-analysis that reports the result. In most cases, multiple meta-analyses have corroborated the finding, but only one has been selected for the table above. 

Can People's Personalities Really Change? 

Yes, people really can change. And they do. Studies consistently find that there is a high degree of stability in people’s personality traits, which means that when groups of people’s traits are assessed and then reassessed some time apart, the results of the two tests are strongly correlated - but stability is not the same as immutability! It just means that if you are more extraverted (for example) than most of your peers today, you’re likely (but not guaranteed!) to still be more extraverted than most of them years from now. Despite the general stability in people's personalities, studies also consistently find that personalities change with age. A meta-analysis of 92 longitudinal studies found that the Big Five personality traits change even well past the age of 30 (contradicting the common idea that personality is ‘set in stone’ by then). The authors of that analysis separated extraversion into two subtraits, which appear to develop differently: Social vitality: “corresponds more closely to traits like sociability, positive affect, gregariousness, and energy level” Social dominance: “reflects such traits as dominance, independence, and self-confidence, especially in social contexts” These graphs show their findings:

Graphs showing cumulative d value (total change, measured in standard deviations) against age, for the Big Five traits - with extraversion broken down into two subtraits. Source: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1. Graphs like these, showing similar findings, are common in the literature on personality change. These results clearly suggest that people tend, on average, to continually change over the course of their lives. While there are dissenting voices with more modest findings (such as in this meta-analysis), even they still find that people change - just not quite as much as suggested by other studies. Yet, you might worry that you will have little or no control over how you change - perhaps because your genes have decided your personality for you already and there’s nothing you can do about it. But the biggest estimates for how much of your Big Five traits are inherited come from twin studies which suggest that somewhere between 40% and 60% is inherited (agreeableness being the least inherited and openness being the most). That still leaves plenty of room for things like experience, environment, and deliberate effort to shape who you are. And, while there is some debate in the scientific literature about whether or not they are more reliable than twin studies, newer genome wide association based methods indicate that even the 40% to 60% heritability figures may be substantial overestimates. There is also evidence (presented in this meta-analysis) that big life events like falling in love or getting a job (or losing one) can affect personality traits. Though much of this evidence comes from studies with significant limitations - e.g., small sample size - and the average effect sizes are not huge.

How to Change Your Personality

When it comes to effective ways to change your different personality traits, there is a very large amount of overlap in methods. The things that work well for one trait often work well for at least some of the others. Below are some of the techniques supported by scientific evidence. Neuroticism appears to be the most malleable of the Big Five traits, followed by extraversion, but it is worth noting that these techniques for changing your personality are typically found to result in small or moderate changes (between 0.2 and 0.8 standard deviations, though some effects are larger). This means that it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to turn yourself into a completely different person, but the evidence suggests that you can make real, meaningful changes - becoming a bit less anxious, a bit more outgoing, a bit more disciplined, and so on. Even small, meaningful changes can feel like they have a big impact. The strategies listed below are arranged roughly by how much evidence there is to support them (starting with the most supported by evidence and decreasing from there).

1.Therapy

Effective for: Decreasing neuroticism, increasing extraversion It might be obvious, but it’s true: therapy has been consistently shown to reduce neuroticism (i.e., improve emotional stability), and increase extraversion. The evidence for this is extremely strong - coming from a very large number of studies, including randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses. But ‘therapy’ is an extremely broad term. It can mean any kind of treatment intended to help with health or well-being, including things like physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, or even dance therapy. So, let’s be more precise: Studies that investigate the effects of therapy on personality tend to look at just a few of the most popular kinds of talking therapy / psychotherapy and a couple of other interventions like drugs and hospitalization. The links between personality and most of the vast number of other forms of therapy have never been studied. So, which ones are supported by scientific evidence? Perhaps surprisingly, multiple meta-analyses (such as this one and this older one) find that the personality changes produced by the most popular forms of talking therapy are all “largely indistinguishable from one another”. Whether it’s cognitive-behavioral therapy, supportive therapy, or psychodynamic therapy, which one you choose doesn’t really seem to matter. This meta-analysis also finds that pharmacological therapies (such as anti-depressants), were just as effective but that hospital stays were not. So, if you’re looking to decrease your neuroticism or increase your extraversion, there is strong evidence to suggest you could benefit from finding a therapist to work with - provided you’re using one of the more popular kinds of talk therapy. There are theoretical reasons to think that you might get more benefit if you reflect (perhaps with the aid of a professional) on the sources of your neuroticism or low extraversion and find a form of therapy to target those sources. For instance, if your neuroticism is driven by a lot of fear or anxiety, or your lack of extraversion comes from social anxiety, then exposure therapy (which is the gold standard treatment for anxiety disorders) could be particularly effective at changing these traits. However, we have found no studies looking directly at this specific kind of approach, so evidence for this relies on theoretical principles.

1.Mindfulness

Effective for: Decreasing neuroticism, increasing conscientiousness There is no universally used meaning of the word ‘mindfulness’, but scientific discussions often use some version of this famous definition: “[Mindfulness is] the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.” So, it’s paying careful attention (without judgment) to things you’re experiencing. This is often confused with meditation, which is closely related but is not quite the same thing. Meditation involves structured or formal practices like sitting quietly, focused breathing, or a mantra. Mindfulness can be done while meditating (this is called mindfulness meditation) but it can also be done during other activities like doing the dishes, eating, walking, and so on. Mindfulness-based interventions are sometimes grouped in with therapy, but they have their own growing body of strong evidence (including meta-analyses, scoping reviews, and individual studies) indicating that they may reduce neuroticism and thereby improve mental health. There is also moderate-to-strong evidence (including this systematic review and this meta-analysis of studies targeting a specific population) that a particular kind of mindfulness-based intervention called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction can reduce anxiety (which is a key component of neuroticism) via mindfulness. Finally, there are also individual studies (such as this one) showing evidence that mindfulness interventions can increase conscientiousness, but this evidence is weaker than for decreasing neuroticism. So, if you’re looking to decrease your neuroticism or increase your conscientiousness, mindfulness practices may be a worthwhile approach - especially if stress, worry, or anxiety are significant challenges for you.

3. Coaching

Effective for: Decreasing neuroticism, increasing extraversion, increasing openness Like therapy, coaching is a very broad category. And, also like therapy, within this broad category, there are a lot of very different practices. That’s why we’re going to get into the weeds a little bit here. The evidence for coaching’s effects on Big Five traits comes from a small handful of randomized controlled trials with small sample sizes, which means it’s weak-to-moderately strong and somewhat preliminary. Let’s look at one in detail. This randomized controlled trial of 54 adults aged 18-64 (M =42.18, SD = 12.44) found that a 10-week course of individual coaching from trainee psychologists can produce reductions in neuroticism and increases in extraversion that remained present after 3 months. This coaching program involved the following components:

1. Clarify values and vision: The client’s personality is assessed and their values are explored. Together, client and coach explore how the client’s life is going and how their personality might be affecting that. Then a vision of an “ideal self” to aim for is developed.

2. Choose targets for change: From that vision, the client and coach pick a few realistic personality subtraits (like self-discipline or anxiety) to focus on.

3. Build a tailored plan: Coach and client select strategies suited to those affecting those subtraits. For example:

   • If self-discipline (a subtrait of conscientiousness) was chosen, the client would choose from strategies like goal setting, organizational skills, life style skills, positive self-talk.

   • If anxiety (a subtrait of neuroticism) was chosen, the client would choose from strategies like goal setting, positive self-talk, life style skills, cognitive therapy techniques, and exposure based techniques.

   • Client and coach then develop an implementation plan together.

4. Practice and adjust: Over 10 weeks, the client applies the techniques, with mid-program and end-program reassessments to track progress and refine strategies.

5. Maintain gains: Clients finish with a plan for sustaining improvements, followed by a three-month check-in to see what stuck.

This approach has a lot of overlap with talking-based psychotherapeutic interventions discussed above, and it’s possible that the same mechanisms are responsible for the gains in both cases. This evidence suggests that, if you want to decrease neuroticism, increase extraversion, or increase openness, you could consider structured coaching. Early trials indicate that even relatively short programs (around 10 weeks) can lead to measurable and lasting improvements.  That said, the research base is still small compared to psychotherapy, and more studies are needed to confirm which coaching methods work best, for whom, and under what conditions.

4. Faking It (Until You Make It)

Effective for: Decreasing neuroticism, increasing extraversion , increasing agreeableness, increasing conscientiousness Perhaps surprisingly, there is evidence that ‘faking it until you make it’ can change your personality. This means that regularly acting out behaviors associated with a certain trait can result in actually having more of it! The strongest evidence for this comes from individual studies, such as this one that found faking it worked to increase extraversion, and this one that found modest effects on neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness (that’s all of the Big Five traits except openness). But there are caveats worth keeping in mind:

1. The studies we were able to find were conducted on small samples of undergraduate students, which is a limitation, and means that the evidence is of weak-to-moderate strength.

2. Most studies do not find evidence of negative effects of ‘faking it’, but there are exceptions. For instance, this study found that acting extraverted “was successful for participants who had at least average levels of trait extraversion, but extreme introverts experienced wellbeing costs in terms of increased [negative affect], tiredness, and reduced feelings of authenticity.” This suggests that, if you’re going to try faking it until you make it, you may want to reflect regularly on whether it’s producing the results you want.

3. There is also a little bit of evidence that those higher in agreeableness might benefit more from this kind of intervention, since studies like this one find that “participants who are more agreeable were more likely to find acting more sociable both enjoyable and meaningful.” This doesn’t mean people low in agreeableness won’t benefit, but it’s a factor that could affect outcomes.

The fact that it is very easy to implement means that it might be worth a try, despite the evidence for this being weaker and more preliminary than the interventions above. If you’re interested in trying this out in your own life, you’ll need to know how to fake it. Well, the studies have tended to give participants prompts like this one (for extraversion):

“During the next week, we would like you to try to change your behavior. Specifically, for the next 7 days, try to act as talkative, assertive, and spontaneous as you can. Previous research has shown that performing these behaviors can be beneficial. Please list five specific ideas below for how and when you will incorporate these types of behaviors into your daily life. For example, “When my friends are discussing something important to me, I will express my opinion.”

The evidence suggests that the way you formulate your ideas for how to fake the trait matters greatly. Vague goals like “be more talkative” produced no effects, whereas goals that were either ‘small steps’ (like “Invite Jenny and Thomas for dinner”) or conditional ‘implementation intentions’ (like IF I have an opinion on my team’s plan, THEN I will speak up and give my thoughts) were much more effective. Hopefully, this can give you ideas for things to try for yourself. Just remember to keep an eye on whether or not faking it is really giving you the results you want. If you think it’s actually just making you feel tired and less authentic, you can always stop.

5. Training

Effective for: Increasing extraversion, increasing openness There is evidence from a small number of individual studies (including randomized controlled trials and weaker studies) on specific demographics, that training programs that teach life skills might work to change personality traits. For instance:

• A 16-week course for older people, about inductive reasoning skills, which “trained participants in recognizing novel patterns and using these patterns to solve problems”, supplemented with sudoku and crosswords, was found to increase participants’ openness.

• Some small studies (such as this one, with no inactive control group) find “initial evidence” that training in things like assertiveness and flirting can boost extraversion.

These kinds of studies should be seen as weak, early indications that training interventions could be effective for personality change. It would be great to see rigorous testing done on specific training regimes that can be implemented broadly. But, for now, the evidence only hints at possibilities.

Pulling it all together

We know that’s an awful lot of information, so we’ll leave you with a summary of the insights above, presented in the graphic below. The scientific evidence really does support the claim that you can deliberately change your personality in various ways. The effects might not be ginormous, but they could be large enough to provide meaningful improvements to your life.

This article was written in partnership with Consensus.  🧠 Want to explore further? See what the science says about which personality traits are linked to well-being and whether stress can change your personality over time.