Bi-Annual Conference of the International
Society for Research on Emotion
July 8-10, 2015
The mixed blessings of agreeableness in moderating
neuroticism-related response tendencies: greater speed but
more mental noise
Marcel Meyer1, Natalia Lawrence2, Chris Chambers3,
Andrew Lawrence3
Ruhr-Universität Bochum1, University of Exeter2, Cardiff University3
Agreeableness has been linked to improved effortful control (JensenCampbell et al., 2002). Agreeableness has also been shown to buffer
the impact of neuroticism on response tendencies (Ode, Robinson, &
Wilkowski, 2008; Ode & Robinson, 2009). Neuroticism, in turn, is positively associated with variability in response latencies or mental noise
(Robinson & Tamir, 2005). Building on this work, we examined the regulatory function of agreeableness on neuroticism in a speeded choice
task (affective Word-Face Stroop paradigm). Results showed that individuals high in agreeableness exhibited faster performance, but also more
response variability. These findings constitute an important extension to
the mental noise hypothesis, in showing that neuroticism is not only directly related to performance variability, but that agreeableness moderates this association. Furthermore, our data lend support to accounts
postulating a facilitatory role of agreeableness in effortful control.
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