Agreeableness is a personality trait within the Big Five model that is characterized by being cooperative, kind, warm, empathetic, and prioritizing harmony over conflict in social scenarios. You may agree (no pun intended) that it is more desirable to interact with a coworker or family member who is sympathetic and agreeable over someone who is uncooperative and difficult. But could being an agreeable person come with drawbacks?
To answer this question, researchers conducted a 2022 meta-analysis combining hundreds of different studies with thousands of participants into a single paper to understand how agreeableness shapes well-being, workplace performance, and a host of other important lifestyle variables.
Positive Traits Associated with Agreeableness
For psychological needs, agreeableness is associated with an increased need for autonomy (the need for choice and volition of one’s own actions), relatedness (the desire to feel connected and supported by others), and competence (the desire to be effective). Agreeable people tend to make effective employees as well; dedication, vigor, demonstrating effort, and overall engagement at work were significantly and positively correlated with agreeableness. In the same vein, agreeable students performed better in the classroom and adjusted to college faster.
Moving to psychological health, the main takeaway is that agreeable people are more likely to be happy. Quality of life, happiness, and life satisfaction are associated with being a sympathetic person.
Agreeable people tend to experience more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions. More variables from the psychological well-being panel show that friendly people have stronger environmental mastery, are more into personal growth, care more about positive relations with others, feel a greater sense of purpose in life, and have a better sense of self-acceptance.
Some say we are living in an epidemic of loneliness, but this is less true for people who are agreeable. Agreeable people are less likely to abuse substances or compulsively use the internet, and are less hubristic and more authentic compared to their less affable counterparts. They have stronger and more satisfying marriages, too.
The largest overall effect in the dataset is the negative relationship between agreeableness and the dark triad personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. In other words, agreeable people are much less likely to display psychopathic behaviors.
Are There Any Negative Traits Associated with Agreeableness?
One drawback of agreeableness is in the domain of personal finances. Interestingly, agreeable people tend to perform worse on a variety of important financial metrics, including lower savings balances, lower incomes, and greater financial hardship (e.g., debts, insolvency). Agreeable people also tend to view money as less important, potentially leading to these negative downstream consequences.
Overall, agreeable people tend to do well in life. Internal and interpersonal satisfaction are positively correlated with agreeableness, and agreeable people appear to make better romantic partners, colleagues, and students.
Yet as with anything in life, the extremes of agreeable behavior may lead to negative outcomes. Being an over-the-moon agreeable person may lead to unhealthy people-pleasing tendencies or an inability to speak up for oneself when it is important to do so.
Similar to Jim Carrey’s character in “Yes Man,” who must say yes to any requests made by others, try saying yes to people this week and being a little more agreeable than usual (especially if it is not your nature), and see if you notice any differences.