title: Sex differences in variability in personality: a study in four samples.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Men vary more than women in cognitive abilities and physical attributes, and we expected that men would vary more in personality too. That this has not been found previously may reflect that (a) personality was measured by self-reports that confound target sex with informant sex, and (b) men actually vary more but accentuate personality differences less than women.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed informant reports and self-reports on the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R or NEO PI-3) collected for two community and two student samples from four countries: Czech Republic (N = 714; age M = 36.1, SD = 14.1; 58% women), Estonia (N = 1,685; age M = 42.6, SD = 13.4; 58% women), Belgium (N = 345; age M = 18.4, SD = 3.0; 78% women), and Germany (N = 302; age M = 23.4, SD = 2.7; 56% women).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Higher male than female variability was found in each sample for informant reports of Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Men but not women were overrepresented in both tails of the distributions of several personality traits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to liability-threshold models of mental disorders, this may contribute to men's overrepresentation in some kinds of deviant groups.
authors.affiliation: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. p.borkenau@psych.uni-halle.de
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Borkenau
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hřebíčková
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kuppens
authors.forename: Anu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Realo
authors.forename: Jüri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allik
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010555:Personality Inventory; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult