What is Openness to Experience?
The Openness to Experience Personality Trait is about seeking new experiences and intellectual pursuits. It’s one of the Big Five Personality Traits. It’s about your willingness to try new things, vulnerability, and capability to think outside the box.
An individual high in Openness to Experience is likely someone who loves learning, enjoys the arts, engages in a creative career or hobby, and likes meeting new people.
An individual low in Openness to Experience probably prefers routine over variety, sticks to what they know, and prefers less abstract arts and entertainment.
The Openness to Experience Personality Trait has 57% genetic influence.
Openness Traits
Common traits related to Openness to experience include:
- Imagination
- Insightfulness
- Varied interests
- Originality
- Daringness
- Preference for Variety
- Cleverness
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Perceptiveness
- Intellect
- Complexity/depth
People who are high in this trait may daydream a lot, while conversely, those low in this trait may be very down to earth.
Facets of Openness
1. Imagination or Fantasy
- High Score – Loves fantasizing and has a creative imagination.
- Low Score – Prefers facts to fantasy.
2. Emotionality or Feelings
- High Score – Aware of their feelings.
- Low Score – Less aware of their feelings and less effective at expressing emotions.
3. Artistic Interests or Aesthetics
- High Score – Interested in natural or artificial beauty. Appreciates the Arts.
- Low Score – Not aesthetically sensitive. No interest in the arts.
4. Adventurousness or Actions
- High Score – Loves traveling to new places, experiencing new things, and trying new activities. Hates routine.
- Low Score – Prefers routine and the familiar. Uncomfortable with change.
5. Liberalism or Values
- High Score – Tends to challenge authority and question traditional values. At its most extreme, this facet can mean hostility to the law and established rules.
- Low Score – Prefers the stability and security of tradition and rules.
6. Intellectual Interests or Ideas (Not the same as Intelligence)
- High Score – Loves to play and debate with ideas. Engages in intellectual discussions. Enjoys puzzles, riddles, and brain teasers.
- Low Score – Prefers actual people and things to abstract ideas. They think intellectual discussions are a waste of their time.
High Openness to Experience
You are creative, curious, adventurous, and always willing to try something new.
People high in Openness are also very imaginative and more interested in ideas than practicality.
They hate being in a routine – constantly looking to experience new things. If things get too repetitive, you feel like you are in a slump and need to change.
High Openness to experience also makes you an excellent problem-solver. They don’t let problems stand in their way and are great at coming up with solutions by thinking outside the box.
They always remain flexible, handling whatever life throws at them. However, this trait also means you typically take more time to make decisions than others.
Being high in Openness to experience makes you see the world not just in black and white – you continuously point out the “gray areas.”
They view people as good or bad and can understand the circumstances guiding others’ decisions.
This ability makes you very empathetic towards others.
People who are highly open to experience are well-suited for careers that allow them to use their creativity in advertising, poetry, acting, and art.
Common Traits
- Very creative.
- Open to trying new things.
- They are focused on tackling new challenges.
- Happy to think about abstract concepts.
There are personality disorders that are related to high openness scores, often getting in the way of social and professional effectiveness:
- Revolutionary ideas and a peculiar form of thinking alienate people.
- Inability to meet goals.
- Too much fantasizing.
- Extreme non-conformity to society’s standards.
- Prefers chaos and disorder.
Medium Openness to Experience
At times, you can be very creative, curious, and adventurous.
At other times, you prefer routine. You can find an outstanding balance between ideas and practicality.
You typically are a good problem-solver. When you are faced with a problem, you consider the tried-and-true methods. Still, you are also able to think outside the box.
You can handle whatever life throws at you.
People with moderate Openness to experience are well-suited for careers that balance creativity with stability, such as journalism, photography, graphic design, or research.
Low Openness to Experience
People with low Openness to experience are typically very dedicated to their work and always see their tasks through.
They are not artistic or imaginative and do not see the value in unnecessary things like art and music.
People who are low in Openness are very analytical and can quickly solve problems. Their first instinct is to use tried-and-true methods when solving problems, and they tend to see things as black-and-white.
They believe that people usually do not change, either good or bad.
And they believe someone’s personality traits and choices are more significant than luck or circumstance.
People with low Openness to experience are often well-suited for careers that allow them to have daily routines with obvious job duties. For example, you may be well-suited for a finance, mechanics, or technology job.
Common Traits
- Dislikes change.
- Does not enjoy new things.
- Resists new ideas.
- Not very imaginative.
- Dislikes abstract or theoretical concepts.
