Agreebleness steadily ticks upwards in young adult years, unless participants undergo military experiences, in which case they see smaller or no changes to this personality trait, with no 'late blooming' of agreeableness to catch them up later. The military group showed a steady increase, but it was extremely weak (from eyeballing the data, it looks as if the agreeableness increase in this smaller sample may not even be significant, but this isn't directly reported). Across the six years, agreeableness increased year on year for the civilian group in a fairly linear fashion. The groups differed in one way only: the effect of increasing agreeableness was one third larger for the civilian than the military group.* This suggests that military training attenuates the upward trajectory of agreeableness seen in early adulthood.Ī subset of participants were contacted on two further occasions, two years apart, giving 4 data points with which to examine this trajectory more fully. These trends have been identified elsewhere as a feature of young adulthood, and are often construed as a developing maturity: coping better with setbacks, being more organised and accountable, and having more generosity of spirit toward others. This created two comparable samples, matched on pre-training personality, of 241 (soldier) and 628 (civilian) participants.Īll participants showed some shifts in personality over time, becoming less neurotic, more conscientious and more agreeable. Those who opt out of the army may differ in terms of personality, so the authors used a smart matching procedure, pairing up budding soldiers with one or two civilians who were similar in terms of personality. A large control group was available thanks to the proportion of German citizens who conscientiously object to military service, opting for civilian duties over the same time period. ![]() ![]() Joshua Jackson of Washington University and a team from the University of Tubingen studied young German men performing their 9 months of military national service (3 in training, 6 on a post), measuring their personality both before training and two years after. But how enduring are its effects? A recent study suggests that we may exaggerate the degree to which the military 'makes the man' (in this case), but that there are influences that endure well into the labour market. Military training intends to change behaviour, drilling the military way into new recruits, and providing incentives for sticking firmly to it.
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