Parents’ gender and personality and estimates of their own and their children’s intelligence

The aim of this paper was to examine the role of parental gender and personality in self-estimations of their own overall and multiple intelligences and that of their children. Fathers rated their verbal, mathematical and spatial intelligence higher than mothers and parents tended to rate their children’s IQ higher than their own. Regressions revealed specific personality dimensions such as Openness and Agreeableness to be relatively powerful predictors of estimated intelligence, more so than demographic variables. Results showed that personality had a greater predictive role for self-estimations of IQ compared to the estimations of other members in the family. Findings not only provide insight into the role of personality, but also draw attention to other potentially influencing variables such as sex, age, actual IQ and attitudes towards IQ testing on self-estimations of IQ.