A complex web of interactions: Personality traits and aspirations in the context of smallholder agriculture

Abstract

Some recent research began to shift the focus of development efforts away from income and yield to more diverse concepts that consider people's intrinsic drivers and values, such as aspirations and personality traits. We aim to improve the understanding of the formation of aspirations by examining the influence of personality traits and socio-economic household characteristics in this process. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results show significant positive correlations of personality traits with aspirations (openness; extraversion; conscientiousness), indicating that personality structures indeed correlate with the formation of aspirations in a rural, agricultural context. Furthermore, we show that household and respondent characteristics are associated with differences in education, income, and social status aspirations. We conclude that the understanding of aspirations, if contextualized, can provide useful insights for development practice aiming at supporting people. Including intrinsic factors for the assessment of human behavior has the potential to increase the efficiency of projects and policies.

Keywords

• Big Five
• aspirations
• smallholder agriculture
• rural livelihoods
• Kenya