Coffee or Tea? Examining Cross-Cultural Differences in Personality Nuances Across Former Colonies of the British Empire

Cross-cultural comparisons often focus on differences in broad personality traits across countries. However, many cross-cultural studies report differential item functioning which suggests that considerable group differences are not accounted for by the overarching personality factors. We argue that this may reflect cross-cultural personality differences at a lower level of personality, namely personality nuances. To investigate the degree of cultural similarities and differences between participants of ten English speaking countries (of which nine formerly belonged to the British Empire), we scrutinized participants’ personality scores on the domain, facet, and nuance level of the personality hierarchy. More specifically, we used the responses of 9,110 participants on the IPIP-NEO 300-item personality inventory in cross-validated and regularized logistic regressions. Based on the trait domain and facet scores, we were able to identify the country of residence for 60% and 73% of the participants, respectively. By using the nuance level of personality, we correctly identified the nationality of 89% of the participants. This pattern of results explains the lack of measurement invariance in cross-cultural studies. We discuss implications for cross-cultural personality research and whether the high degree of cross-cultural item-level differences compromises the universality of the personality structure.

跨文化比较研究往往集中于各国之间广泛的人格特质差异。然而，许多跨文化研究报道了项目功能差异，这表明相当一部分群体差异并未被总体的人格因素所解释。我们认为，这可能反映了在较低的人格层次上存在的跨文化人格差异，即人格细微差异。为了探究十个英语国家参与者（其中九个曾属于大英帝国）之间的文化相似性和差异性程度，我们对参与者的人格特质在人格层次的结构、领域和细微层面上的得分进行了细致分析。具体而言，我们利用了9,110名参与者在IPIP-NEO 300项人格量表上的回答，通过交叉验证和正则化逻辑回归进行了分析。基于特质领域和侧面得分，我们分别能够识别出60%和73%参与者的居住国家。通过使用人格的细微层面，我们正确地识别出了89%参与者的国籍。这一结果模式解释了跨文化研究中测量不变性的缺失。我们讨论了跨文化人格研究的意义，以及跨文化项目层面的高度差异是否损害了人格结构的普遍性。