A study, titled One Personality Trait Distinguishes Gifted People, and reported in Psychology Today on November 14, 2021, looked at correlations between giftedness and the Big 5 traits (Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, Neuroticism and Agreeableness). They found the following:*
• Giftedness seems like a blessing but may be a burden.
• Gifted individuals have learning differences, including divergent thinking, quirky humor, and a penchant for complexity, that set them apart.
• Openness to experience is a key personality trait found in association with giftedness.
• Giftedness is not associated with less-social personality traits, dispelling the myth that gifted individuals have innate social problems.
The study involved a meta-analysis of 13 high-quality studies involving 3244 gifted individuals, so the research is relatively free of personal bias or unjustified generalization. Hence, it appears that individuals differ in intelligence and that some of our fellow beings have substantial intellectual gifts. Furthermore, these gifted individuals, if properly nurtured, will generate insights and create inventions that will serve us all.
A free chapter on giftedness can be downloaded at: https://www.intelligence-and-iq.com/downloads/. Just click on the button titled, is talent a myth?
The article in Psychology Today is accessible at: One Personality Trait Distinguishes Gifted People
*Uzeyir Ogurlu & Adnan Özbey (2021): Personality differences in gifted versus non-gifted individuals: A three-level meta-analysis, High Ability Studies, DOI:
