From the Guidelines
Increasing agreeableness through interventions such as mindfulness-based programs and positive psychological interventions can lead to improvements in psychological well-being, cardiovascular health, and overall quality of life. To achieve this, individuals can engage in mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or other mind-body techniques like progressive muscle relaxation, deep-breathing exercises, guided imagery, yoga, and tai chi, as these have been associated with improvements in depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, quality of life, physical functioning, smoking cessation, healthy eating, and physical activity 1. Additionally, practicing positive psychological interventions, such as imagining and writing about a better future, recalling positive life events, identifying and using personal strengths, and planning and performing acts of kindness, can promote optimism, gratitude, and positive affect, leading to significant, small effects on well-being and depression 1. Key practices to increase agreeableness include:
- Developing empathy and compassionate communication through perspective-taking and active listening
- Incorporating regular mindfulness meditation to enhance emotional regulation and reduce reactivity
- Using the "pause method" in challenging situations to choose more considerate responses
- Volunteering regularly to cultivate compassion and connection with others
- Keeping a daily gratitude journal to reinforce positive social perceptions
- Role-playing difficult conversations to develop diplomatic communication skills. These practices can strengthen neural pathways associated with empathy and social connection, reducing automatic defensive responses and leading to noticeable improvements in agreeableness over time, typically within 4-6 weeks of consistent practice, as supported by the findings of Kubzansky et al. 1.
From the Research
Effects of Increasing Agreeableness
- Increasing agreeableness can have a positive impact on therapy outcomes for patients with borderline personality disorder, as shown in a study where agreeableness was linked to better outcomes in a general psychiatric management-based treatment 2.
- Targeting agreeableness through interventions can also reduce levels of the dark triad traits, such as Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy 3.
- Agreeableness can facilitate the crossover of work engagement from one individual to another, with high agreeableness intensifying this effect 4.
- While not directly related to the effects of increasing agreeableness, research on mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral therapy suggests that these interventions can be effective in reducing social anxiety symptoms and improving related outcomes 5.
- Agreeableness can moderate the effect of aggression-related cues on behavior and cognition, with individuals high in agreeableness less likely to engage in aggressive behavior and more likely to recruit prosocial thoughts in response to aggression-related primes 6.
Key Findings
- Agreeableness is linked to better therapy outcomes for patients with borderline personality disorder 2.
- Interventions targeting agreeableness can reduce levels of the dark triad traits 3.
- Agreeableness facilitates the crossover of work engagement and intensifies this effect when individuals have high levels of agreeableness 4.
- Agreeableness moderates the effect of aggression-related cues on behavior and cognition, promoting prosocial thoughts and reducing aggressive behavior 6.