About Openness

Openness to experience, a key component of the Five Factor Model of personality, encompasses six facets: active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, intellectual curiosity, and challenging authority. Psychometric research shows these facets are interrelated, forming a global trait. While most people fall in the moderate range, some score extremely high or low. Those low in openness prefer tradition and routine, while the trait correlates positively with creativity, intelligence, and knowledge, and has modest relationships with well-being and hypnotic susceptibility.