Statistics anxiety and the Big Five personality factors

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between statistics anxiety and the Big Five personality factors using a multivariate approach. Participants were 83 students (69% female) enrolled in one of three statistics courses. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that Neuroticism was positively correlated whereas Openness to Experience and Agreeableness was negatively correlated with Worth of Statistics, Fear of Asking for Help, and Fear of Statistics Teachers. Extraversion was positively correlated with Interpretation Anxiety, Test and Class Anxiety, and Fear of Asking for Help. Conscientiousness was not correlated with statistics anxiety. Practical implications include advising statistics instructors to adjust teaching in order to cater to students with different personalities. Limitations include the possibility of social desirability bias and non-generalizabilty of results. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.