On the moderating role of chronotype on the association between IQ and conscientiousness: the compensation effect occurs only in Evening-types

ABSTRACT

Several studies show that intelligence and conscientiousness are negatively related. One of the most popular explanations of this effect is the compensation hypothesis. It posits that less intelligent people may become more conscientious to compensate for their relative lack of intelligence, whereas more intelligent individuals tend to rely on their cognitive effectiveness rather than organization or persistence. In the present study, we aimed to test a hypothesis that the morningness-eveningness dimension, an indicator of diurnal preferences, may act as a moderator of the association. We propose that Morning-types are conscientious regardless of their intelligence level, whereas the compensation effect is particularly marked among Evening-types. The study was conducted on a group of 383 individuals aged 18–69 years. Controlling for age and gender, we obtained a significant moderation effect, showing that magnitude of the negative association between intelligence and conscientiousness increases with eveningness. Bivariate associations between morningness-eveningness, intelligence and conscientiousness are also reported. Results suggest that it may be important to provide appropriate support to high-ability Evening-types in educational and work settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Intelligence
• conscientiousness
• chronotype
• morningness-eveningness
• compensation theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Center, Poland [grant number 2014/13/D/HS6/02951].