Openness to experience, or simply openness, describes how willingly someone accepts new ideas. Highly open individuals are often creative and imaginative, and many seek novel ways to experience life and explore their interests. Openness, along with other personality traits, impacts how one interacts with and views the world around them.
What Is Openness?
Openness to experience, or simply openness, describes how willingly someone accepts new ideas. Highly open individuals are often creative and imaginative, and many seek novel ways to experience life and explore their interests. Openness, along with other personality traits, impacts how one interacts with and views the world around them.
Openness occurs on a spectrum, and everyone falls somewhere different on the personality continuum. No one is fully “closed” to experiences–some people are simply more likely to pursue or excel at openness than others.
Characteristics of openness include:
- Action: This aspect entails seeking new experiences and trying different activities.
- Ideas: Openness to ideas means having intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn.
- Values: Values relate to how open individuals tolerate, accept, and integrate the beliefs and worldviews of others into their own lives.
- Aesthetics: Open individuals seek and appreciate beauty in many places and forms.
Imagination: Being highly imaginative allows individuals to engage in creative problem-solving, invention, and artistic expression. - Feelings: Openness allows many people to understand and experience complex emotions.
How Do Professionals Measure Openness?
A reliable measurement of the five personality factors requires a formal assessment by a psychologist. Psychologists use written (or computerized) tests such as the Structured Interview for the Five-Factor Model of Personality, the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), or The NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). These are detailed assessments with numerous questions designed to pinpoint the nuances of personality.2
Openness in the Big Five Personality Traits
Openness is not an all-or-nothing trait. Everyone possesses all of the Big Five Personality Traits to varying degrees. Where we each fall on the spectrum of openness and other characteristics shapes how we see ourselves and others.
- Conscientiousness: Conscientiousness is the ability to stay organized and have a sense of responsibility.
- Extraversion: Extroverted individuals are very social and gain energy from social interaction.
- Agreeableness: Agreeableness relates to how one shows compassion, respect, and trust toward others.
- Neuroticism: Neurotic individuals are more prone to depression or anxiety.
What Does Openness Look Like?
Openness includes traits like intellectual curiosity, creativity, imagination, and unconventionalism. People very high in openness are sometimes labeled as “unusual” or “odd,” while people extremely low in openness might be called “closed-minded” or “rigid.”3
Common characteristics of high openness include:4
- Enjoying new and unfamiliar people and experiences
- Liking surprises
- Needing a variety of activities and learning opportunities to prevent boredom
- Rejecting traditional norms and values
- Preferring spontaneity to routine
- Having an interest in arts, music, and/or literature
- Experiencing mixed or complex emotions
How Openness Influences Behavior
Openness affects behavior in various ways. Individuals high in openness tend to seek engagement, activism, and exploration. They thrive with spontaneity and revel in novelty. Open tendencies, along with the remaining personality traits, impact how we behave, what interests we pursue, and with whom we interact.
Engagement
Highly open individuals actively engage with the world and seek opportunities for sensory stimulation.4 They typically crave fun and are willing to take risks to feel a rush of interest and exhilaration.1 In contrast, someone low in openness prefers familiarity, structure, routines, and stability.
Exploration
A tendency toward openness involves curiosity and receptivity to new concepts, ideas, and knowledge.1 People high in openness may take various classes to discover what they want to do with their lives, and they may change direction multiple times.
Pursuit of Creative Endeavors
Openness is linked strongly to creativity and invention.4 These interests allow individuals to think adaptively and develop new ideas or solutions in all areas of life, including engineering, business, and more. People who are open prefer to be leaders and innovators rather than followers.
Active Appreciation of Beauty
People who are open appreciate aesthetic beauty and excellence. They may experience beauty by immersing themselves in nature, the arts, or any other activity they find pleasing to the senses (i.e., culinary arts). Highly open individuals also feel emotionally moved by beauty.1 Their reactions embody the phrase “moved to tears.”
Activism
The activists in society are frequently high in openness. Highly open people tend to be independent thinkers, non-conformists, and agents of change.1 They seek to expand the world and ensure all voices are heard and can contribute positively to the world.
What Are the Benefits of Openness?
Being open to experience brings many benefits in life. A high degree of openness corresponds with positivity, happiness, overall well-being, and increased job performance.4 Open individuals seek personal growth, education, and creativity. They are also flexible and adaptable, allowing them to approach and solve problems creatively for continued stability and happiness.
Benefits of high openness may include:1
- Increased life satisfaction
- Reduced stress
- Increased ability to adapt and deal constructively with difficulties
- Willingness to seek new opportunities, concepts, experiences, and people
- Making purposeful life choices that create happiness
- Helping people reflect nonjudgmentally on both positive and negative circumstances
- Emotional stability and positive affect
- Reduced depression and anxiety
- Healthy self-esteem
Can Someone Have Too Much Openness to Experience?
Openness has numerous benefits but also comes with drawbacks. A personality trait cannot magically make someone perfect or erase challenges and negative perceptions. For instance, highly open people may be less practical and more impulsive, meaning completing tasks or meeting goals is difficult.5
Possible drawbacks of high openness include:5
- Increased risky behaviors
- Experimenting with substances
- Higher neuroticism
- Psychoticism (i.e., schizotypal personality disorder)
Causes of Openness
Experts in psychology have explored what makes someone high or low in openness. In general, highly open individuals notice more, absorb more, and have a broader range of ideas to integrate into their concept of themselves and their world. The way someone takes in and processes information may contribute to their level of openness. Conversely, being open may lead individuals to process information the way they do.
Possible causes of openness include:
- Gender: Whether gender plays a role in openness remains a mystery. Some studies have shown a difference, with females tending to be more open than males.1 However, other findings report no gender differences in openness.6
- Genetic factors: Some research suggests a genetic component to openness, with findings suggesting a higher rate of heritability with openness and neuroticism than conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness.6
- Worldviews and perceptions: People high in openness see the world differently than those lower in the trait, and they process information differently as well.4 They may possess less latent inhibition, a neurological function that filters out sensory input.
- Differences in neural activity: Highly open individuals exhibit increased neural activity in the default network, a neural system associated with mind-wandering and imagining different points of view.4
7 Ways to Increase Openness
Openness is a malleable personality trait, and studies indicate changing where we fall on the spectrum is possible.7,8 You can increase your openness to experience by setting goals, remaining curious, and appreciating beauty in your surroundings. Increasing this trait takes time and effort, so be intentional about your approach.
Below are seven ways to increase openness:
1. Create Intentional Goals
Setting goals and intentions leads to positive changes in openness.7 Be specific about what you want to improve. Examine the six areas of openness to identify one or two aspects to expand.
Determine specific, small action steps you can take to reach your goal. For example, attend multicultural events, read relevant books, or explore different ideas to help expand your horizons.
2. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Make sure your goal-directed action steps include activities that stretch you. Becoming more open-minded means leaving your comfort zone and experiencing new things. Consider volunteering at a community event to encounter unfamiliar people and places. You could also join an organization relating to something new and interesting.
3. Be Curious
Give yourself opportunities to wonder and explore. What ideas or topics have you avoided because they are “impractical?” Schedule time each day or week to feed your curiosity. Browse your library, meandering through random sections and selecting books to take home and read. On your work break, look up information about something that interests you. Don’t worry about an end goal–instead, be curious and learn simply for learning’s sake.
4. Seek & Pause to Appreciate Beauty
Immerse yourself in and experience nature mindfully. Even if you can only walk around your block, stroll and absorb the sights, sounds, smells, and textures. Seek things pleasing to your senses. Slow down and let yourself appreciate and enjoy the experience. Doing so opens your mind and spirit to the world around you, teaching you to approach other situations and people similarly.
5. Hone Your Creative Side
Openness encompasses creativity. Free your creativity by exploring hobbies that help you develop ideas. You might try rock painting, sculpting with clay, building models, making designs with legos, or decorating cakes and cookies—the list is seemingly endless.
If you already have a creative hobby, try adding something new. For instance, consider buying an inexpensive guitar and taking some lessons if you are a talented artist but have never played an instrument.
Creativity is not limited to actively making something. You can nurture your creative side by attending concerts, enjoying art walks, or viewing art at a museum or gallery. Alternatively, you can read books and watch movies when stuck at home.
6. Increase Your Tolerance of Uncertainty
Facing the unknown can be anxiety-provoking. Often, we shy away from anything that makes us uncertain or anxious, preventing us from becoming more open to experiences.9 Increase your ability to tolerate uncertainty by approaching new situations with a beginner’s mind.
Beginner’s mind is the Zen concept of open-mindedness that invites us to approach each moment as a beginner would, with no expectations or judgments.9,10 Doing so frees us to simply be present and experience things as they happen without imposing negative thoughts on them.
7. Work With a Therapist
A therapist can help you become unstuck from things that might prevent you from being more open-minded. Therapy can also help you explore yourself, set goals, and establish action steps to accomplish them.
Therapists do not seek to change your personality. Instead, they help people overcome obstacles and become who they want to be in healthy, meaningful ways. Finding the right therapist can help you become more open-minded and work toward positive outcomes.
Final Thoughts
Openness is neither all good nor all bad. Knowing where you fall on the spectrum of openness can help you learn about yourself and understand your reactions to circumstances and people around you. Then, you can identify areas for your own personal growth and life enhancement. Embrace those qualities that help you on your journey, and make intentional changes in ways you feel will boost your own life satisfaction.
For Further Reading
Openness Infographics
