'Envious' Reigns As Most Common Personality Type

The majority of people fall into one of four personality categories, a recent study from Spain finds. And while people with three of the personalities types — optimistic, pessimistic and trusting — were equally represented in the study, people who were identified as having an envious personality were the most common, the researchers found.

The findings also suggested that being envious may lead people to act in ways that are not rational, according to the study, which was published in August in the journal Science Advances.

In the study, researchers categorized about 540 people as belonging to four personality types — optimistic, pessimistic, trusting and envious — by asking them to play a series of games in pairs. In the games, the people were able to cooperate with their partners, oppose their decisions or even betray them. Then, using a computer algorithm, the researchers sorted the people into the four groups.