Exceptional ability may correlate with personality traits

• Feist’s 1998 meta-analysis of personality studies comparing creative vs. less-creative scientists reports:
  • California Psychological Inventory: creative scientists have higher scores in tolerance (d = 0.77), self-acceptance (d = 0.69), flexibility (d = 0.55), dominance (d = 0.53), intellectual efficiency (d = 0.52), achievement via independence (d = 0.50), psychological mindedness (d = 0.50).
  • Five-factor model: creative scientists more extraverted (d = 0.39) and open to experience (d = 0.31)
• Hall and MacKinnon (1969) report correlates between the “creativity ratings” of professional architects (as assessed by a survey of professors) and California Psychological Inventory scales. Their best fit found correlations between creativity ratings and of achievement via independence (r=1.015), femininity (r=0.990), and social presence (0.547).

References

Feist, G. J. (1998). A Meta-Analysis of Personality in Scientific and Artistic Creativity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(4), 290–309. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0204_5

Hall, W. B., & MacKinnon, D. W. (1969). Personality inventory correlates of creativity among architects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 53(4), 322–326. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0027811