Cognitive Ability and Personal Values: A Large Sample Study of Schwartz's Values, HEXACO Personality, Age, and Gender

Abstract

This study offers the most comprehensive assessment to date of the relationship between personal values and cognitive ability. A large sample of Australian adults (n = 15,552; 60% female; age M = 38.7, SD = 10.7) completed Schwartz’s Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ-RR), 200-item HEXACO Personality Inventory–Revised, and measures of general intelligence, crystallized intelligence (verbal ability), and fluid intelligence (abstract reasoning) as part of a job application. General intelligence correlated positively with self-direction, benevolence, and universalism, and negatively with security, tradition, and conformity. Crystallized intelligence correlated more strongly with values than did fluid intelligence. Basic values explained more variance in cognitive ability compared with higher-order values, while narrow values provided minimal incremental prediction. Personal values correlated more strongly with intelligence than did personality traits. Item-level models for personal values and personality offered meaningful incremental prediction of intelligence. Findings support refinement of theories on the development of values, personality, and cognitive ability.