Culture of Character vs. Culture of Personality

Barbara and I recently watched a TED talk by author Susan Cain; her talk The Power of Introverts. (If you are not familiar with TED talks you should Google it. There are some amazing things to learn on this free website. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. The talks range from “How Flies Fly” to “3D Printing”.)

In Cain’s talk, she referred to two ideas that caught my attention. The ideas from her study, as well as the study of others, are a ‘culture of character’ and a ‘culture of personality.’ These are not terms that I was familiar with, but are widely used by sociologists and students of culture. The implications of these two ideas are very interesting.

In her talk, she described how for hundreds of years the highest value in Western Society was placed on character. People lived mostly in rural agricultural settings. In those settings, people worked together, lived together, worshipped together and celebrated life and death together. Since people lived in such close quarters, character was highly valued and was hard to fake.

As the Industrial Revolution ensued and vast numbers of people began moving to the urban areas, personality began to be valued over character. People in urban settings no longer lived with, worshipped with, and celebrated life and death with the people they worked with. As time went on, the separations became even greater. People lived with one group, worshipped (if they continued to do so) with another group, worked with yet another group and celebrated life and death with yet another group. Sometimes these groups overlapped and sometimes they didn’t. As the century progressed and urban sprawl began to occur, the circles of life became even more removed.

In these settings, personality became the important factor for a person and not necessarily character. A book that was important in the late 19th century was Character, the Grandest Thing in the World. In the 20th century, one of the widely read books was How to Win Friends, and Influence People.

Now a few decades later, it seems that life rises and falls on personality. Movie stars, superstar models, superstar athletes and superstar entertainers of every sort fill the landscape. When teens are surveyed about what they would like to ‘be’ in life, the number one answer is famous. The ‘culture of personality’ has even morphed more with the advent of social media. Character plays almost no part on social media. Personality becomes the most important thing. At least my ‘avatar’ personality becomes vital.

What are the implications in your life from the idea of ‘culture of character’ verses ‘culture of personality’? Which of the two cultures are most important in your world?