So, here’s a question that I find fun to think about:
I’ve found some theories online about the 5 factions of divergent being based on the 5 big personality characteristics.
So, which personality characteristic do you think would go with each faction? Hmmmm?
Here is a link with a bunch of words describing aspects of each of the big 5 personality traits, on the Educational Testing Service web site:
So,
- Openness
- Concientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Let’s start with the obvious ones.
One of the words listed in the link above for Openness is ‘Intellect.’ That’s obviously the ‘Erudite’ faction. As Wikipedia says: Erudite (the intellectual)
One of the words listed above for Agreeableness is ‘Altruism.’ That’s obviously the ‘Abnegation’ faction. As Wikipedia says: Abnegation (the selfless)
Amity is clear just from its name. The definition of Amity on google is ‘a friendly relationship.’ Therefore, Amity must be Extroversion, which is all about friendly relationships.
One of the phrases listed above for Neuroticism is ‘panic easily/remain calm under pressure.’ Therefore, it seems clear to me that a low score on neuroticism corresponds with bravery, and therefore Dauntless. As Wikipedia says: Dauntless (the brave)
The last one is less clear, but by process of elimination, we are left with trait of Conscientiousness and the faction of Candor. Huh?! How do we go from ‘a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement against measures or outside expectations,’ to ‘honesty?’
Well, it is my guess here that the writer stretched the model a little bit for good storytelling reasons. It is far more entertaining to have a bunch of characters shooting their mouths off and telling the truth than it is to watch people performing very dutifully.
After all, shouldn’t all of the factions perform their different duties conscientiously?
And, believe it or not, some people see the word ‘honest’ as not just covering verbally telling the truth, but also keeping one’s verbal promises, which means that one would have to act very dutifully and ‘conscientiously’ toward those promises or obligations.
So, I think these are how the Big 5 Personality Traits align with the ‘Divergent’ factions:
- High Openness: Erudite
- High Concientiousness: Candor
- High Extraversion: Amity
- High Agreeableness: Abnegation
- Low Neuroticism: Dauntless
Eh. I could be wrong. Thoughts?