The personality traits of self-made and inherited millionaires

The study asks how the personality traits of very wealthy individuals differ from those of the general population and why such differences exist. It addresses whether the distinctive personality profile of the rich is a consequence of being born into wealth or a driver of wealth accumulation. Prior research is limited by difficulty accessing the wealthy and reliance on small, non-representative samples or income as a proxy for wealth. Given the societal influence of the rich and the role of personality in shaping behavior, the authors use large, representative data and individual-level net wealth to compare personality traits and to contrast self-made millionaires with inheritors. They hypothesize that if personality drives wealth accumulation, self-made millionaires will most strongly exhibit a prototypical rich profile (high Risk tolerance, Openness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness; low Neuroticism and Agreeableness).

The paper situates its inquiry within debates on how wealth, social class, and status relate to personality, drawing on sociology (e.g., Bourdieu’s habitus) and social psychology on class socialization. It highlights evidence that entrepreneurship—prevalent among the wealthy—is linked to specific personality traits (high Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness; low Agreeableness and Neuroticism). Prior work has associated Big Five traits and risk-taking with job performance, wages, credit, life events, investing, entrepreneurship, and firm performance. Studies often used income as a wealth proxy, but net wealth is argued to be superior due to its right-skewed distribution and stability, and because top-wealth individuals can minimize measured income via unrealized gains. Previous analyses of wealthy individuals used small convenience samples, limiting generalizability and causal inference regarding whether personality is cause or consequence of wealth.

Design and data: The study uses two large, representative German samples with identical measurement: (1) general population from the SOEP and (2) a top-wealth subsample SOEP-P (first fielded 2019) oversampling millionaires. Personality and wealth are measured at the individual level. Extensive quality controls and harmonization are described by SOEP infrastructure. Population and sampling: Adults residing in Germany. Individuals with individual net wealth between €800,000 and €1,000,000 were excluded to sharpen contrasts. Working sample N=23,721, including N=1,125 with ≥€1 million, N=190 with ≥€5 million, and N=61 with ≥€10 million (top respondent ~€100–131 million). The rich comprise approximately the top 1.6% of the German wealth distribution. Composition among rich: self-made N=517 (45%), inheritor N=136 (12%), mixed/unspecified N=472 (42%). Measures:

• Individual net wealth: Sum of assets (owner-occupied and rental real estate, financial assets, building loan contracts, life/private pension insurance, tangible assets, vehicles, privately owned businesses) minus liabilities (mortgages, consumer debt, student loans), with respondent-reported ownership shares.
• Personality: Big Five assessed via SOEP BFI-S (3 items per trait; 1–7 scale). Evidence supports acceptable reliability, convergent and discriminant validity; internal consistencies ~0.49–0.69 across traits. Risk tolerance measured by a validated single-item 0–10 willingness-to-take-risks scale shown to predict incentivized risk behavior and real-world risk-taking.
• Covariates: Gender, age category (<40; 40–60; >60), and high education (≥12 years schooling). Group definitions: Using self-ratings on eight wealth-influencing factors (scale −5 to +5), respondents were categorized as:
• Inheritors: gifts or inheritances or marriage rated >3 for increasing wealth AND entrepreneurship/self-employment ≤3.
• Self-mades: entrepreneurship/self-employment rated >3 AND gifts/inheritance/marriage ≤3.
• Mixed/unspecified: all others; used as benchmark and as convex combination of the two. Analytic strategy:
• Trait-by-trait comparisons between rich and non-rich via Welch’s t-tests, reporting Cohen’s D.
• OLS regressions with robust SEs predicting each trait from rich vs. non-rich indicator and sociodemographic controls (including age×gender interactions); predictive margins used for standardized profiles.
• Construction of a prototypical “rich” personality profile: maximal values on Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, Risk tolerance; minimal values on Neuroticism and Agreeableness, guided by prior literature. For each person, compute quadratic distance to this prototype (Cronbach & Gleser profile similarity) to summarize overall alignment.
• Kernel density plots of distances and subgroup profiles (self-made, inheritor, mixed) among rich and non-rich.
• Within rich self-mades, regress (log) wealth on distance to prototype and traits to test whether closer alignment predicts higher wealth. Robustness: Supplementary analyses vary group cutoffs and show consistent results; subgroup classifications align with objective indicators (e.g., self-employment, business wealth vs. inheritance measures).

• Rich vs. non-rich (Welch’s t-tests; Cohen’s D):
  • Risk tolerance: t(1252)=21.97, p<0.001, D=0.63 (rich higher).
  • Openness: t(1241)=10.99, p<0.001, D=0.33 (rich higher).
  • Extraversion: t(1239)=7.29, p<0.001, D=0.22 (rich higher).
  • Conscientiousness: t(1242)=5.97, p<0.001, D=0.18 (rich higher).
  • Neuroticism: t(1239)=-16.72, p<0.001, D=−0.50 (rich lower).
  • Agreeableness: t(1226)=-2.14, p=0.032, D=−0.06 (slightly lower in rich; not robust in OLS with controls). OLS models with controls confirmed all differences except Agreeableness.
• Subgroup differences among the rich: Self-made millionaires show the most pronounced rich profile—highest Risk tolerance, Openness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and lowest Neuroticism. Inheritors show the least pronounced profile (lower risk tolerance/openness/extraversion/conscientiousness, higher neuroticism). Confidence intervals for self-mades do not overlap inheritors’ point estimates for Risk tolerance, Neuroticism, Openness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness.
• Prototype distance: Among the rich, inheritors are farthest from the prototypical rich profile; self-mades and mixed/unspecified are closer (kernel densities and regressions).
• Non-rich subgroups: Non-rich self-mades resemble the rich profile (higher risk tolerance, openness, extraversion, conscientiousness; lower neuroticism), whereas non-rich inheritors and mixed/unspecified show flatter profiles. Non-rich self-mades have smaller distances to the rich prototype than other non-rich groups (B=11.471, p<0.001 for lower distance vs. non-rich inheritors/mixed). They still are less pronounced than rich self-mades.
• Within rich self-mades: Greater similarity to the prototypical rich profile predicts higher wealth, driven particularly by higher Risk tolerance (Table S10).
• Sample composition: Among rich, self-mades 45% (N=517), inheritors 12% (N=136), mixed/unspecified 42% (N=472). Overall sample N=23,721; rich N=1,125.

The findings address the research questions by demonstrating a distinct personality profile among millionaires characterized by higher Risk tolerance, Openness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness and lower Neuroticism relative to the general population. The evidence suggests personality is more likely a driver of wealth accumulation than merely a consequence: self-made millionaires most closely match the prototypical rich profile, whereas inheritors diverge from it (lower risk tolerance and higher neuroticism). The presence of a similar, though attenuated, profile among non-rich self-mades indicates that such traits increase the likelihood of wealth creation but do not guarantee it, given the roles of capital, education, and abilities. The results have broader societal implications because the wealthy influence politics, business, and culture; their elevated risk tolerance may yield both economic dynamism (entrepreneurship, investing) and potential downsides (over-optimism, collective losses).

The study shows that the rich differ from the general population in personality, exhibiting higher Risk tolerance, Openness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness, and lower Neuroticism. Initial evidence indicates that this personality configuration may contribute to wealth accumulation: self-made millionaires align most strongly with the prototypical rich profile, and within this group, closer alignment—especially greater risk tolerance—relates to higher wealth. Future research should employ longitudinal designs and richer objective data to more conclusively identify causal pathways and to examine how these personality differences shape societal outcomes.

• Generalizability: Data are from Germany; cultural and institutional contexts may limit applicability to other countries (e.g., more individualistic or more unequal contexts).
• Classification: Self-made vs. inheritor status is based on self-reports, which may be subject to bias; objective life-cycle wealth modeling would require unavailable detailed longitudinal financial data.
• Measurement: Personality and risk tolerance are self-reported; BFI-S is a short measure with moderate internal consistencies.
• Causality: Cross-sectional design precludes causal inference about whether personality causes wealth accumulation; inheritance-related bereavement is unlikely to explain stable trait differences, but transient effects cannot be fully ruled out.
• External validation: While subgroup definitions align with objective indicators in supplements, comprehensive objective verification of wealth sources is not feasible within this study.