Managing Openness
Creativity is a niche trait with a price — pair it with low neuroticism or a container.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 89%
Asked to define openness, Peterson gives the trait model: creativity and verbal fluency together make up openness, and it is also associated with verbal IQ, sitting alongside extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness in the Big Five. The framework is his refusal of the obvious inference. You might think the more of that the better, but no, that is not how nature works — you can undo yourself by being open. His argument is evolutionary: there would not be variation in creativity if it were not dangerous, and there are lots of people very low in openness for a reason. The two failure mechanisms he names are specific. First, identity: open people have a hard time catalysing their identity because they are protean, shift shapes constantly and are interested in everything, which makes it very hard to pursue one thing. Second, the interaction with neuroticism: openness is not much fun if you are high in negative emotion, because you continually undermine yourself, and because exposure to the unknown makes the body prepare for anything, which is expensive and physiologically demanding. Peterson's read of Tim is the positive case — given what he does, entrepreneurial and interested in ideas, his cardinal trait is undoubtedly openness, and if you can manage it it is a great trait. That conditional is the whole framework.
Origin
Peterson has published more than a hundred scientific papers on personality and built the Understand Myself assessment around the Big Five. The framing here comes out of his psychopharmacology background — his doctoral research was in alcoholism, which forced him to learn the motivational and emotional systems all drugs of abuse act on.
Core principles
- 01There are five personality traits: extraversion (positive emotion), neuroticism (negative emotion), agreeableness (compassion versus predatory aggression), conscientiousness (dutifulness and orderliness), and openness.
- 02Openness is creativity and verbal fluency together, associated with verbal IQ and interest in ideas.
- 03You might think the more openness the better, but that is not how nature works — you can undo yourself by being open.
- 04There would not be variation in creativity if it were not dangerous; low openness is common for a reason and has advantages.
- 05Open people have a hard time catalysing their identity because they are protean, shift shapes constantly, and are interested in everything, which makes it very hard to pursue one thing.
- 06Openness is not much fun if you are high in neuroticism, because you continually undermine yourself.
- 07Exposure to the unknown carries a physiological price: facing uncertainty makes your body prepare for anything, which is expensive and physiologically demanding.
How to run it
- 1
Locate openness properly in the trait model
Openness is creativity plus verbal fluency, associated with verbal IQ and interest in ideas — one of five traits alongside extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Pro tip Peterson's own assessment tool at understandingmyself.com is the operational version of this step.
- 2
Reject the more-is-better assumption
You might think the more of that the better, but that is not how nature works. Peterson's argument is that there would not be variation in creativity if creativity were not dangerous, and that low openness has advantages.
Pro tip Treat your trait profile as a niche to occupy rather than a score to maximise.
Watch out You can undo yourself by being open — the risk is self-inflicted, not environmental.
- 3
Check your neuroticism alongside it
The interaction is the key variable. If you are high in negative emotion and prone to anxiety, openness can be a curse, because you continually undermine yourself and the uncertainty carries a real physiological cost.
Pro tip Extraversion plus openness drive you forward through curiosity and engagement; neuroticism is what turns the same exposure into a tax.
Watch out When you face something uncertain your body prepares for anything, exactly as it does when you are angry — expensive and physiologically demanding.
- 4
Solve the identity-catalysing problem deliberately
Open people are protean, shift shapes constantly and are interested in everything, which makes pursuing one thing very hard. The remedy is to choose the one thing explicitly rather than waiting for it to emerge.
Pro tip Let the other interests become inputs to the chosen pursuit rather than rivals to it.
Watch out Waiting for a single interest to dominate naturally is waiting for the trait to change.
- 5
Build the container that makes the trait payable
Peterson's verdict on Tim is conditional: your cardinal personality trait undoubtedly is openness, and if you can manage it it is a great trait. Structure, conscientiousness and collaborators are what constitute the management.
Pro tip The entrepreneurial path is a container — it converts novelty-seeking into an occupation rather than a distraction.
- 6
Accept the social role that comes with it
Open people occupy a particular niche — they are on the edge, and they flip things upside down all the time. Peterson calls that dangerous and necessary in the same breath.
Pro tip The same trait produces the creative revolution institutions need; the danger and the value are the same property.
Watch out Being on the edge is a position, not a mood — expect the instability that goes with it.
In the wild
When Tim describes himself as an open person, Peterson responds that there is no doubt about it given what Tim does — he is entrepreneurial and interested in ideas, so his cardinal personality trait undoubtedly is openness. Then comes the conditional that carries the framework: and you know, if you can manage it, it is a great trait.
→ A live trait diagnosis delivered with the management condition attached rather than as a compliment.
Tim describes the Hopkins finding that a single dose producing a mystical experience moves a person from roughly the 50th percentile of openness to the 85th — a major neurological rewiring, and stunning. Peterson agrees it is stunning and that there are surely things about it that are good, then counters with Jung: beware of unearned wisdom. His earlier reasoning is why the shift is not automatically a gift — openness is not much fun if you are high in neuroticism.
→ A concrete case where increasing openness is measurably possible and still not unambiguously desirable, depending on the rest of the profile.
Tim notes that schizophrenia, or a family history of schizophrenia, is a disqualifying criterion for becoming a subject in the psilocybin studies, and links it to what Peterson said about risk factors for people swimming closer to the bank of the river that is chaos. Peterson agrees, notes that if you are schizophrenic you should stay away from amphetamines, and that you can induce paranoid schizophrenia in normal people by overdosing them on amphetamines.
→ An illustration that trait and vulnerability profiles determine whether an intervention is enhancement or injury.
Common mistakes
Treating openness as an unqualified good
Peterson's blunt correction is that this is not how nature works and that you can undo yourself by being open. Variation in creativity exists because creativity carries risk; a trait that were purely advantageous would have been fixed.
Ignoring the neuroticism interaction
The same openness that is a great trait in a calm person is a curse in an anxious one, because exposure to uncertainty is physiologically expensive and the person continually undermines themselves. The trait cannot be evaluated alone.
Waiting for identity to catalyse on its own
Protean shape-shifting and interest in everything is the trait behaving normally. Expecting a single vocation to emerge without a deliberate choice is expecting the defining feature of the trait to stop operating.
Chasing more openness as an upgrade
The psilocybin case shows the shift is achievable in one dose, which is precisely why Peterson reaches for Jung's warning about unearned wisdom. Acquiring the trait without the container that makes it manageable is the risk, not the reward.
Is it for you?
Best for
Entrepreneurial, idea-driven people who are interested in everything and struggle to converge — especially those who are also anxious.
Not ideal for
People low in openness whose constraint is generating novelty rather than containing it.
From the transcript
“openness isn't much fun if you're high in neuroticism all right because you continually undermine yourself”
“there wouldn't be variation in creativity if it wasn't dangerous there's lots of people who are very low in openness and there's a reason for…”
“you might think the more of that the better but no that isn't how nature works you can undo yourself by being open”
“they're so protein they shift shapes constantly they're interested in everything it makes it very hard for them to pursue one thing”
From the episode
#502: Jordan Peterson on Rules for Life, Psychedelics, The Bible, and Much More