Does Intelligence Buffer or Amplify Personality Effects? An Experimental Test in a Brief Frustration-Induction Paradigm

Abstract

Progress on the intelligence–personality interface increasingly depends on studying the processes through which the two combine. One such process is whether intelligence buffers or amplifies personality expression under stress. Applied research reports such buffering for neuroticism on performance and conscientiousness on safety behavior, but not whether it extends to brief experimental contexts. We tested it with a mirror-tracing frustration paradigm with error-contingent penalties. Psychology undergraduates (N = 420 recruited; analytic n = 334–378) completed intelligence measures, personality inventories (NEO-FFI, BIS/BAS), and the PANAS pre- and post-task. The induction increased negative affect (d = 0.78). Neither hypothesis was supported, but the nulls are inconclusive: the design could detect only moderation well above the target magnitude, and equivalence tests could not exclude smaller effects. An exploratory analysis suggested, however, that intelligence may moderate a process rather than a trait: errors committed during frustration predicted affective change at higher levels of ability. This interaction held after residualizing errors on ability but did not survive Bonferroni correction and requires confirmatory replication. The buffering–amplifying question appears underspecified as posed; we propose an agenda specifying context, process, outcome, and required sample sizes.