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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · 8d

Early career personality researchers coming to the Edinburgh ECP22: If you want to get a link to a slightly more affordable uni accommodation option later this year, leave your email here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Advance Accommodation Information

Primarily for Early Career Researchers (PhD, post-doc): If you would like to receive advance information about a limited number of more affordable accommodation options available for the 22nd Europea...

docs.google.com

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · 12d

Personality change people: does it make sense to think that to change a broader trait domain (neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness) one could consider starting with those facets/nuances that are furthest from the desired levels?
(Most room for change?)

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · 19d

21 to 24 July 2026

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · 20d

Keynote speakers: @tuckerdrob.bsky.social @foswald.bsky.social Ellen Hamaker

Hands-on workshops by:
@tedmond.bsky.social & @ukuvainik.bsky.social (genomic analyses)
@dirkwulff.bsky.social (LLMs in personality research)

www.ecp22edinburgh.org/programme

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · 20d

Submissions are now open for 22nd European Conference on Personality (Edinburgh, 2026); deadline 7/12/25.
Keynote speakers and pre-conference workshops have also been confirmed.
www.ecp22edinburgh.org/submission

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Reposted by René Mõttus

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 27d

New paper out with @boryslaw.bsky.social 🥳 In which we sketch out how to rethink measurement invariance causally for applied researchers. And provide a causal definition of measurement invariance!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Rethinking measurement invariance causally

Highlights:
It is preferable to work with a causal definition of measurement invariance
A violation of measurement invariance is a potentially substantively interesting observation
Standard tests for measurement invariance rely on strong assumptions
Group differences can be thought of as descriptive results

Conceptual graph illustration the central points of the manuscript. A group variable is potentiall connected to a construct of interest which affects items. Measurement invariance is violated if the group variable directly affects the items, for example by modifying the loadings from the construct to the items, or by directly affecting an item

To make this less abstract, consider a scenario where students take an exam, R, meant to capture some ability, T, and then are admitted to a program, V, depending on their exam results: R → V. This is sufficient to result in a violation of the statistical definition of measurement invariance. Exam results and admission are not independent given ability because exam results have a direct effect on admission. Even if we know somebody’s ability (e.g., we know it’s very high), learning about their admission status (e.g., they were not admitted) can tell us something about their exam result (e.g., it may have been worse than expected). According to the causal definition, this in itself does not constitute measurement bias, which seems a sensible conclusion here. After all, the scenario does not involve any reason to believe that the measurement process varied systematically by admission status. Admission happens after the exams took place, it cannot retroactively influence the measurement process (and, for example, lead to unfair treatment depending on admission status).

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Sep 5

I once proposed a simple tool to understand and visualise correlations, TACT.
doi.org/10.5964/ps.7...

This app makes it even easier to use: apps.psych.ut.ee/TACT/

TACT: Trisect And Cross-Tabulate to understand and visualise correlations

apps.psych.ut.ee

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jul 11

Since otherwise the stability is confounded with test-specific variance (e.g., facets/nuances, stable item interpretations etc).

It's like people define latent traits as the shared variance of multiple indicators cross-sectionally -- here we extend to longitudinal data.

René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jul 11

I suppose yes, this makes them real in some sense.
My follow-up question is: if these "real" Big Five exist independently of their tests, then to study the "real" rank-order stability of the Big Five, we should assess them with different tests at different time-points.

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jul 10

Personality folks, is there an argument to be made for latent Big Five traits that exist independently of the particular test we happen to use to assess them?
(If yes, I will have a follow-up question)

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 30

Now published in Current Opinion, we show why personality research should embrace multi-rater studies and how this can be achieved in practice, even at scale. Often, this is the most realistic way to avoid (reliably) invalid conclusions.
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 14

a cartoon of a girl with the words " yes please " on the bottom

ALT: a cartoon of a girl with the words " yes please " on the bottom

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by René Mõttus

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · Jun 14

What I really enjoy about Bluesky is how you can serendipitously learn so much stuff. You’ve probably heard of Dunbar’s number — the idea that humans can only maintain X stable social relationships, because *gestures vaguely* brain? Here’s a deconstruction of it.>

Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · Jun 13

Taking the chance to boost the antidote, for what good it will do

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

‘Dunbar's number’ deconstructed | Biology Letters

A widespread and popular belief posits that humans possess a cognitive capacity that is limited to keeping track of and maintaining stable relationships with approximately 150 people. This influential...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 14

Good thing there is a reference for why this (or any such) number makes no sense.

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Reposted by René Mõttus

moin syed @syeducation.bsky.social · Jun 12

Folks, it's time to submit your papers to PCI Psychology. Here is our invitation to you, taken from our editorial osf.io/preprints/ps...

A screenshot from the PCI Psychology editorial

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 11

What is the best public domain occupational interest test currently available (still relevant for the current job market)?

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 9

And how that difference plays out in other demographic trends (see number of kids 👀). Personality is up next 😁

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 9

New preprint: One of the largest studies (N = 67,000) on how sexual desire varies with age, sexual orientation, education, job, number of children, recent birth, and relationship satisfaction, and how the trends differ by gender.
doi.org/10.21203/rs....

Associations Between Demographic and Relationship Variables and Sexual Desire: Findings from a Large-Scale Estonian Biobank Dataset

Sexual desire plays a crucial role in human well-being and relational dynamics, yet its demographic and relational predictors remain insufficiently understood. Leveraging a uniquely large and represen...

doi.org

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 7

doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Sorry.

OSF

doi.org

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 7

Ah, correct link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

OSF

doi.org

René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 7

Would you recognise your friend from their personality trait profile?
Photos can be instructive: portraits of 5×5px (Big Five), 30×30px (NEO facets), or 100×100px (more facets/nuances). You decide.
doi.org/10.31234/osf...

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · Jun 2

This was a fun conversation with Kensy, the host of the @manymindspod.bsky.social

Many Minds podcast @manymindspod.bsky.social · Jun 2

New episode!! 📣🎙️

A conversation w/ @renemottus.bsky.social about the science of human personality.

The "Big Five" model of human personality has been enormously generative and influential. But what does it miss? What does it mask? Where should the field go next?

Listen: disi.org/the-big-five...

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · May 28

With a PhD in personality research and interested in teaching? Consider applying for a fixed-term teaching job at the University of Edinburgh.
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Lecturer

The School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences is seeking to appoint a teaching focused lecturer in Psychology on a full time, fixed term contract until 31st of August 2026.

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · May 20

This may be one of the largest personality research projects ever.

Ted Schwaba @tedmond.bsky.social · May 20

Extremely excited to share the first effort of the Revived Genomics of Personality Consortium: A highly-powered, comprehensive GWAS of the Big Five personality traits in 1.14 million participants from 46 cohorts. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · May 18

Both personality traits and satisfaction may vary with these ...