Is IQ related to the Big Five personality trait "openness"?

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No, but there is a positive, albeit weak, correlation between IQ and the "intellect" facet of openness. As with conscientiousness, we measured openness using SAPA statements. Specifically, we measured three facets of openness, intellect (e.g.,  “I can take in and process lots of information.” or “I quickly understand things.”), creativity (e.g., “I love to think up new ways to do things.” or “I have a creative and powerful imagination.”) and introspection (e.g., “I like to get lost in contemplation.” or “I make an effort to understand myself deeply.”). Therefore, we had four SAPA openness scores: the three facets and the total score for broad openness.

Correlational analysis on sample size of n = 477 uncovered mostly low correlations. The only significant correlation was between IQ and the intellect facet (r = 0.11). Although significant, this correlation is low. All the other correlations between IQ and openness facets/scores were non-significant: for SAPA creativity score (r = -0.07), for SAPA introspection score (r = -0.02) and for SAPA broad openness trait score (r = 0.01). Here are the scatterplots of our correlations:

What do the other studies say?

Other studies with large sample size or meta analyses that examined the IQ-openness relationship generally find moderate correlation between IQ and intellect facet of openness (or related facets, such as "ideas"), with the correlation between IQ and other openness facets being substantially smaller (e.g., Ackerman & Heggestad, 1997 meta analysis; Anglim et al., 2022 meta analysis; Furnham, 2023 on N > 14000; Kaufman, 2013). In Anglim et al.'s meta-analysis, the highest correlation between IQ and any openness facet is with "ideas" (r = 0.25). Correlations between IQ and all other facets are lower (between 0.06 and 0.16). There is a similar result in Frunham's study, where IQ- vs. "ideas" correlation is r = 0.15 and all the other correlations are below 0.10.

 Thus, our findings are generally in line with previous, albeit with somewhat lower effect sizes.

Takeaways

• IQ has a small positive correlation with the "intellect" facet of openness, but not with other measured facets.

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