Low Agreeableness represents a personality type where there is a sense of wide distance from others.
This can be expressed with keywords such as “isolated”, “indifferent”, “calculating”, and “selfish”.
BigFive is a framework that most people find easy to perceive.
To measure Agreeableness, it’s essential to focus on the degree of aloofness.
In addition to the content of the conversation, pay attention to the wording and actions, as they can also indicate an impression of being cold and distant in interpersonal interactions.
Therefore, make comprehensive observations to assess Agreeableness.
Conversation Setting
Agreeableness is directly linked to relationships with groups and individuals, so even in cases where you want to gather information from interview talks, discussing group activities and interpersonal relationships can provide you with more insights.
- For mid-career hires, it’s appropriate to ask for specific explanations about teamwork in the workplace, such as “Do you have many opportunities to work in teams?”
- There are positions where teamwork is not required, but in such cases, you can gather information about how well the candidate fits into working alone. However, asking questions like, “Are you comfortable working in a team?” would be futile.
- For new graduates, there are usually no issues with friendships. You can make it clear by asking about their communication frequency and atmosphere.
However, please be careful not to be overly concerned with the quality of interpersonal relationships. It’s the distance and interactions with people in their daily lives that express their Agreeableness.
Points of Assessment
The key point in evaluating Agreeableness is to distinguish it objectively from the other 4 axes of BigFive.
The desirable level of Agreeableness varies depending on the job position, so please evaluate it according to the specific role.
While in many organizations, there is a bias towards “must have high agreeableness,” looking across job roles reveals that Agreeableness is unrelated to job performance.
In fact, for positions that have gained importance in recent years, there are many cases where lower Agreeableness can hinder successful performance. Thus, it is essential to carefully consider the requirements of each job when defining the evaluation criteria.
As Conscientiousness is independent of Agreeableness and follows its own distribution, whether a person with low Agreeableness is selfish or not is a 50-50 chance.
Therefore, please consider Conscientiousness together with Agreeableness in your evaluation.
