“Big,” But Not Universal
The five-factor model of personality is useful for describing the vast majority of people in today’s world, but it does not apply to everyone. A study of forager-farmers in Bolivia indicated that this model was not a good fit for a predominantly illiterate and indigenous “small-scale society” (Gurven, von Rueden, Massenkoff, Kaplan, & Lero Vie, 2013).

Angel Franco/The New York Times/Redux