What Personality Has to Do with Trusting People Based on How They Make Decisions

Abstract

People think that making quick decisions is important for leadership in the digital age. Business ethics experts, on the other hand, say that smart managers take their time, stay calm, and think things through before making choices. There is a long history of moral study in business ethics that both approaches can draw on. This piece uses real numbers to show how much leaders in the information age trust the skills and drive of the people they work with. Dual process theories of cognition have added to the field of research on making good decisions by combining moral traditions from business ethics research. On a conceptual level, though, both intuitive and deliberate thought have been linked to more moral behavior. To find out how different types of cognitive processes affect differences, 5578 people filled out the Decision-Making Profiles, the Big Five Personality Questionnaire, and a survey about how much they trust others. Because personality plays a part, the data showed that the different ways people make decisions depend on how much they trust others. People who are more "extroverted," "open," or "agreeable" are more likely to trust others. Personality type doesn't have a big effect on trusting people in the wise decision-making description. People with the deliberative profile trust people the least, people with the smarter profile trust people about the same amount, and people with the intuitive profile trust people the most. For the most part, the smarter profiles believe people, no matter what kind of person they are. These results add to what is known about how dual process models of cognition relate to personality differences, trusting others, and personality differences. It looks like the leadership skill of phronesis is very important for building trust in groups and nations.

Author's Profile

Attila Tanyi
University of Tromsø

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Added to PP
2024-08-24

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