Disentangling the Effects of Human Development and Gender Egalitarianism on the Gender Gap in the Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits Across Countries

The main aim of the study is to disentangle the effects of two contextual factors—human development and gender egalitarianism—on the increasing size of gender differences in personality traits across countries. A three-way 2x2x2 factorial design was used to examine the effects of gender, human development, and gender egalitarianism on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality traits in samples from four countries that vary in their levels of contextual factors—Burkina Faso (low human development/low gender egalitarianism), Moldova (low human development/high gender egalitarianism), Qatar (high human development/low gender egalitarianism), and Switzerland (high human development/high gender egalitarianism). The level of human development was the main contextual factor influencing the size of gender differences in Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Openness while gender egalitarianism contributed to the gender gap in Neuroticism and Agreeableness only in interaction with human development. A high level of human development is a necessary but not sufficient condition for larger gender differences in Neuroticism and Agreeableness—only once such a level is reached does gender egalitarianism make an additional contribution to widening the gender gap.