Individual differences as predictors of work, educational, and broad life outcomes

Ongoing research on measures of individual differences (personality, cognitive ability, and admissions tests) has revealed their importance in academic success (including outcomes beyond college grades), work success (including objective and subjective measures of job performance), and everyday life (including divorce and mortality). Despite the body of evidence, confusion remains about foundational empirical questions including their strength, importance beyond a threshold, and independence from social class and other confounds. We first discuss the likely sources of confusion when considering the literature. We then review a series of large-scale studies and meta-analyses conducted to unambiguously address nine common, but false, assertions about the relationship between intelligence and personality measures with life outcomes.