READ: A supportive spouse is the best boost for your career

If you are ambitious, then you are better off marrying someone who is conscientious, scientists claim.

For pay rises and promotions may depend as much on having a supportive husband or wife exerting their influence at home as on your own abilities, a study has shown.

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Psychologists tested 5,000 couples on five broad measures of personality – openness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and conscientiousness – and then compared the results with job satisfaction, salary increases and achievements among their partners.
They found that those who did best at work tended to have a spouse who scored high for conscientiousness.

This was true for both sexes and whether or not the spouse was also in employment, says a report in the journal Psychological Science.

The ambitious spouse can rely on a conscientious partner to handle household chores and reduce stress – and is likely to take their traits of diligence and reliability into the workplace.

Professor Joshua Jackson, of Washington University, St Louis, said: ‘This is another example where personality traits are found to predict broad outcomes such as health status or occupational success.

'The experiences responsible for this association are not likely isolated events where the spouse convinces you to ask for a raise or promotion.

‘Instead, a spouse’s personality influences many daily factors that sum up and accumulate across time.’

-DM

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