Paragons of character—Character strengths and well-being of moral, creative, and religious exemplars

Objective

Which traits best describe individuals who are recognized as exemplary in different domains? And can self-rated positively valued personality traits distinguish such individuals from the general population?

Background

The study of exemplary individuals’ personality traits traditionally focused on general and broad traits. Using character strengths, which are narrower and designed to describe desirable behavior, could provide new insights.

Method

In this study, we examined 204 outstanding individuals—exemplars who received or were nominated for a public award recognizing their exemplary behavior (e.g., a Carnegie Rescuers Award; n = 119), individuals holding a patent (n = 62), and individuals living in a religious order (n = 23). We compared these exemplars to comparison samples matched based on demographic variables. All participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing character strengths and well-being (e.g., satisfaction with life).

Results

Results showed that the three groups of exemplars differed meaningfully in their character strengths and well-being from the matched comparison groups. Compared with matched counterparts, moral exemplars scored higher on the strengths related to the virtues of courage, humanity, and justice as well as the character strength of humility, creative exemplars scored higher on the character strengths of creativity and honesty, and religious exemplars scored higher on gratitude and spirituality.

Conclusion

Overall, our findings suggest that character strengths are a useful framework for studying exemplary behavior.