Nice guys finish last, and end up with less in the bank

NICE children are more likely to end up poor later in life, according to a new study.

Scientists have found that those with a more agreeable personality are destined to show a higher degree of financial mismanagement as adults.

Experts at University College London and Columbia Business School analysed the data from more than three million participants and found that those with meaner personalities ended up, on average, richer.

As well as looking at children, following them into later life, they also studied adults. Agreeability correlated with lower income, lower credit scores, lower savings and higher debt.

The research teams also sought to establish why the correlation existed. They concluded that agreeable people were worse off not because they were more willing to compromise, but because they simply thought less about money, and were therefore at a higher risk of mismanaging their affairs.

Dr Sandra Matz, from Columbia Business School, said: “Our results help us to understand one potential factor underlying financial hardship, which can have serious implications for people’s well-being.

“Being kind and trusting has financial costs, especially for those who do not have the means to compensate for their personalities.”

The researchers compared publicly available personality and financial data from two areas, Middlesbrough and north Devon, that had similar per-capita income levels. The area that scored significantly higher on agreeableness, north Devon, also had a 50 per cent higher bankruptcy rate.

They took their data from online panels, national surveys, bank account data and geographic data that were available to the public.

“We were interested in understanding whether having a nice and warm personality, what academics in personality research describe as agreeableness, was related to negative financial outcomes,” said Dr Matz.

“Previous research suggested that agreeableness was associated with lower credit scores and income.

“But we wanted to see if that association held true for other financial indicators and, if so, better understand why nice guys seem to finish last.”

The research is published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.