US scientists have used computer simulations to figure out the best personalities to send on long space missions, like a three year trip to Mars.
They say including a diversity of personalities may make for a more resilient team when faced with the stress and isolation of such a long mission. The team fed their simulations data about personality types and psychological theories, investigating how five personality traits – openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness – affect the various mission roles and skills, and their impact on the stress, health, performance, and cohesion of the team.
They found teams with a variety of personality types performed better than those in which they were all the same, and say a mix of coping styles and interpersonal dynamics might help teams maintain stability over time. Although the simulations didn’t take any changes to personality types during the mission into account, the researchers say the results may help inform future crew design strategies for long-duration space missions.
