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This paper demonstrates that the Big five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability) measured at age 14 can be linked to field of study choice in university at around age 19. While personality matters less than cognitive skills, such as math ability and verbal ability, for educational attainment, the influence of personality on field of study choice is comparable to that of cognitive skills.
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Martin Humburg (2017) studied this question.
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