The complex relationship between number of languages spoken and individuals’ personality, self-esteem and ideology

Abstract

A total of 843 adults from a number of different English-speaking countries indicated how many languages they speak reasonably well and provided background information on their demographic profile, their personality, their Self-esteem and their ideological views. Just over half were monolinguals, a third were bilinguals with the remaining participants being trilinguals. We correlated number of languages spoken with demography (age, education, sex), ideology (religious beliefs and political views), Self-esteem, and personality (as assessed by six work-related traits). Correlation and regression analysis showed that Self-esteem, Religiousness and trait Curiosity were most closely positively related to the number of languages spoken, while a surprising negative relationship emerged with trait Ambiguity Tolerance. There was also some indication that education (degree status) was related to number of languages spoken. Implications of the findings and limitations are considered.

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