From the Guidelines
Increasing agreeableness through mindfulness-based interventions and positive psychological interventions can lead to significant 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 1. These interventions have been associated with improvements in depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, quality of life, physical functioning, smoking cessation, healthy eating, and physical activity 1. Additionally, positive psychological interventions that promote optimism, gratitude, and positive affect can be beneficial, with activities 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 1. Some key strategies to increase agreeableness include:
- Practicing mindfulness meditation for 10-15 minutes daily to increase awareness of reactions and patience
- Engaging in acts of kindness, volunteering, or helping others without expecting anything in return to foster positive feelings
- Using "I" statements instead of accusatory language and making a conscious effort to find common ground in disagreements to improve communication skills
- Keeping a gratitude journal, writing three things appreciated about others each day to foster positive feelings
- Identifying triggers that make one defensive or argumentative and using techniques like deep breathing or counting to ten before responding to improve emotional regulation. Overall, these approaches can help rewire neural pathways associated with social interaction and emotional processing, strengthening the prefrontal cortex's ability to regulate emotional responses 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.