Insights From Life Success Studies

Success is something many people chase, dream about, and want to immerse themselves in. But success can mean very different things depending on the person. For some, it means achieving personal goals. For others, it may mean financial security, rising to the top of a profession, building strong relationships, or simply living a fulfilling life.

A recent study explored this idea by examining 111 meta-analyses that included roughly 3,300 studies and more than 2 million participants. That is an enormous amount of data. The researchers looked at how personality traits relate to different forms of life success across areas such as health, leadership, relationships, work performance, and well-being.

What they found was interesting. While many factors contribute to success, two traits consistently stood out when it came to health and long-term outcomes: conscientiousness and emotional stability. People who are organized, dependable, disciplined, and emotionally steady tended to do better over time.

The study also found that people who are more extroverted and open to new experiences were more likely to show stronger leadership, higher engagement, and greater social success. In other words, people who are willing to connect with others, communicate openly, and embrace new ideas often place themselves in positions where opportunities can grow.

So when you combine conscientiousness, emotional stability, extroversion, and openness, the odds of achieving different forms of success may increase significantly. Of course, success is still personal and multifaceted, but the research suggests that certain personality traits can strongly influence long-term outcomes.

Anyway, the study is worth reading if you are interested in the psychology of success and human behavior.

Mapping Domains of Life Success: Insights From Meta-Analytic Criterion Profile Analysis

• The study develops a multidimensional taxonomy of life success, defining success as the accumulation of valued psychological, physical, relational, educational, and occupational advantages across the lifespan.
• Researchers analyzed 111 meta-analyses covering 206 life success variables, representing more than 2.25 million participants across over 3,300 studies.
• The article examines how the Big Five personality traits—emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness—predict different forms of life success.
• Findings indicate that personality traits are meaningful predictors of life success across health, relationships, leadership, work attitudes, performance, and well-being.
• The authors introduce a provisional taxonomy of 14 life success categories divided into three major domains: individual, interpersonal, and institutional success.
• Using Meta-Analytic Criterion Profile Analysis (MACPA), the researchers distinguish between personality profile “elevation” effects and “pattern” effects in predicting success outcomes.
• Results show that personality configuration patterns are important for understanding different success outcomes, although overall personality elevation accounts for much of the predictive variance.
• The study identifies 10 clusters of life success nested within three broader metaclusters: contentment, agentic engagement, and self-transcendence.
• Conscientiousness and emotional stability are strongly associated with health and longevity outcomes, while extraversion and openness are especially linked to leadership, engagement, and social success.
• The authors argue that life success reflects adaptive strategies for managing stability, growth, relationships, and achievement in changing environments.

Wilmot, M. P., Wiernik, B. M., & Ones, D. S. (2025). Mapping domains of life success: Insights from meta-analytic criterion profile analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 151(6), 767–818. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000476