How do Enneagram types score on the Big Five personality traits?

It can be difficult to make meaningful comparative statements about different Enneagram types. We can for example say that, on average, type Sevens are more extraverted than type Fives. But the Enneagram offers no straightforward backup for this, and we all know that persons of the same type can differ wildly – its many layers are one of the strengths of the Enneagram.

The Enneagram is not based on a certain set of personal characteristics with every person scoring differently on the different characteristics. This is unlike some major other personality type models, including the the DISC, MBTI and Big Five. These are all built around their own list of dimensions (traits, preferences, talents, behaviors), which are used to differentiate people or types.

We can lay the results of such models on top of the Enneagram types. The below graph, derived from the research paper Relationships between OPQ and Enneagram Types by Anna Brown and Dave Bartram, shows how the Enneagram types score on the dimensions of the Big Five (which is the model considered to have the most scientific reliability).

For those who are familiar with the Enneagram types, none of these results are mind-blowing:

• Types Six and Four are the least emotionally stable; Eight the most.
• Types Eight and Seven are the most extraverted; Fives are the most introverted, followed by Nines and Fours (the ‘withdrawn’ types).
• Types Seven and Eight as well as types Four and Five are highly open to new experiences and ideas; least open are types Nine, Six, and One.
• Types Two and Nine score highest on agreeableness; Fives and Eights score lowest.
• Type One scores highest on conscientiousness; type Seven the lowest.

These results are theoretically expected and show significant differences between the nine types, which endorses the validity of the Enneagram. So, what makes this comparison valuable is both that it affirms what we (think to) know about Enneagram types, and that it quantifies the differences between types. It allows us to back up claims like “Sevens are in general more extraverted than Fives.”

In general. We’re still talking about people.

I – a type Five poster child – recently called my one of my most talkative, least private, and by far the most optimistic of my friends (naturally, our call took four hours) with the intention to verify my secret conviction that he is a type Seven. Instead I found out that he is a fellow Five! One factor was culture: we come from different countries. And certainly, often Fives can actually be very engaged when they find a listening ear to share with what they are passionate about. (Don’t get me started about the Enneagram!)

The whole research paper can be downloaded here.