René Mõttus

Top download from APA Journals in 2025 examines occupational differences in #personality traits, drawing on Big Five domains and personality nuances. Full article + interactive tool to explore the results ➡️ https://bit.ly/3NMyk3h @katlinanni.bsky.social @ukuvainik.bsky.social @renemottus.bsky.social

New episode alert! 🚨 @renemottus.bsky.social spoke with Elliot Berkman, @kaitlynmwerner.bsky.social and @andero.bsky.social about self-regulation and affect regulation, and how each of the guests' research connects to personality psychology. Check it out!

Two-year post-doc position in my department working on a cool project applying cognitive science (transmission chain experiments and natural language processing) to study cultural evolution: tinyurl.com/bdeju6kw

For those submitting a symposium to the ECP22 (deadline soon!): I added details to the submission instructions. www.ecp22edinburgh.org/submission

For those coming to the ECP22 in Edinburgh, 2026: You can now book more affordable Summer Stay rooms (75 rooms currently available at a cheaper price) For details: www.ecp22edinburgh.org/accommodation

Reminder: The submission deadline for ECP22 is December 7th. www.ecp22edinburgh.org/submission

🔔 Those coming to the ECP22 in Edinburgh: Consider booking accommodation early! Edinburgh is a very popular place. Here are accommodation tips for ECP folks: docs.google.com/document/d/1... 📝 Submissions & registrations are also open: ecp22edinburgh.org #ecp22

Why aren't some of the strongest personality neuroscience papers getting widely cited?

ECP22 Registration is now open: www.ecp22edinburgh.org/registration

Reminder: the 22nd European Conference on Personality, ECP22, Edinburgh, July 2026, is accepting submissions until 07/12. Submit a symposium, talk, or poster! We promise you the best research, many smart discussions, social fun, and a fantastic historic city. www.ecp22edinburgh.org/submission

Early career personality researchers coming to the Edinburgh ECP22: If you want to get a link to a slightly more affordable uni accommodation option later this year, leave your email here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Personality change people: does it make sense to think that to change a broader trait domain (neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness) one could consider starting with those facets/nuances that are furthest from the desired levels? (Most room for change?)

New paper out with @boryslaw.bsky.social 🥳 In which we sketch out how to rethink measurement invariance causally for applied researchers. And provide a causal definition of measurement invariance! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I once proposed a simple tool to understand and visualise correlations, TACT. doi.org/10.5964/ps.7... This app makes it even easier to use: apps.psych.ut.ee/TACT/

Personality folks, is there an argument to be made for latent Big Five traits that exist independently of the particular test we happen to use to assess them? (If yes, I will have a follow-up question)

Now published in Current Opinion, we show why personality research should embrace multi-rater studies and how this can be achieved in practice, even at scale. Often, this is the most realistic way to avoid (reliably) invalid conclusions. doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

What I really enjoy about Bluesky is how you can serendipitously learn so much stuff. You’ve probably heard of Dunbar’s number — the idea that humans can only maintain X stable social relationships, because *gestures vaguely* brain? Here’s a deconstruction of it.>

Folks, it's time to submit your papers to PCI Psychology. Here is our invitation to you, taken from our editorial osf.io/preprints/ps...

What is the best public domain occupational interest test currently available (still relevant for the current job market)?

New preprint: One of the largest studies (N = 67,000) on how sexual desire varies with age, sexual orientation, education, job, number of children, recent birth, and relationship satisfaction, and how the trends differ by gender. doi.org/10.21203/rs....

This was a fun conversation with Kensy, the host of the @manymindspod.bsky.social

With a PhD in personality research and interested in teaching? Consider applying for a fixed-term teaching job at the University of Edinburgh. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

This may be one of the largest personality research projects ever.

German coverage of our work on occupational personality profiles. www.spektrum.de/news/persoen...

Episode alert 🚨 Anat Bardi and Laura Parks-Leduc discuss their research on values. They delve into definitions and research approaches, changes in values, and associations with personality traits. They also highlights established evidence about values and areas unexplored.

Some really interesting contrasts in our new "assumption-free heritability" preprint: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

How do life satisfaction and job satisfaction vary among hundreds of jobs? (Doing a religion job looks good, if you are considering a career change.) New preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

A reminder: the European Conference of Personality of 2026, ECP22, will be in Edinburgh in July 2026. ecp22edinburgh.org

Gender differences in personality traits tend to be larger in countries where the dominant language is gendered according to several metrics. osf.io/preprints/ps...

A good overview paper of what may well be a big change in many science fields, including psychology -- moving from low-dimensional models to higher-dimensional ones and how this may sometimes mean more parsimony due to simple learning principles and accurate predictions. doi.org/10.31222/osf...

We show how personality traits' familial transmission is usually misestimated (due to single-method biases) and often misunderstood (confusing non-additive transmission that only makes identical twins alike with transmission that makes ordinary relatives alike). Now out in JPSP. tinyurl.com/mrejyhb4

doi.org/10.1038/s413... Now we're talking 👍

whichjob.me is now also available in French -- our 13th language. There will be some more, to make it available to most people in the world. Thank you, Kokou Atitsogbe and Jérôme Rossier, l’Université de Lausanne!

🚨 A new episode is out! Lisanne de Moor spoke with incoming editor-in-chief Matthias Ziegler and outgoing editor-in-chief @renemottus.bsky.social about the change in editorship at the European Journal of Personality and how they reflect on and look ahead at their time in the role of Editor-in-Chief.

Now in print (open access): In a sample of N > 16,000 assessed with self- and informant-reports, psychopathology has stronger associations with personality domains and nuances than typically seen in self-report-only data. doi.org/10.1037/abn0...

Say you are receiving personal feedback, but you have the option to see only positive, only negative or both types of feedback. Would you look at both positive and negative feedback? Or just positive?

Do people want to know what others think of their personality traits (reputation)?

whichjob.me just became available to over 800M more people in their native language, as we launched Spanish and Arabic versions. Thank you, MJ Sánchez Ruiz and Monah Al Hassanieh!

I have been selected as the recipient of the Estonian National Annual Research Award in Social Sciences for 2025. I feel truly honoured and humbled. I thank the members of the Estonian Biobank for their effort and trust, and my dear colleagues and students for their support and inspiration.