Peter J. Rentfrow

Peter J. Rentfrow
Born4 June 1976 Edit this on Wikidata
EducationUniversity of Texas at Austin Edit this on Wikidata
OccupationsAcademic, psychologist Edit this on Wikidata
Employer

Peter Jason Rentfrow is an American psychologist who is a professor of personality and individual differences in the Psychology Department at Cambridge University.

Early life and education

Rentfrow was born on 4 June 1976. He studied at the University of Texas, first receiving an undergraduate degree in Psychology in 1998 and then a PhD in 2004 under the supervision of Samuel D. Gosling, William B. Swann, and James W. Pennebaker. He moved to the University of Cambridge in 2005.

Research

Maps showing differences in (A) Extraversion, (B) Agreeableness, (C) Conscientiousness, (D) Neuroticism, (E) Openness. For each trait, the areas in blue are comparatively low and the areas in red are comparatively high

Rentfrow describes his research as examining "links between basic personality traits and common social psychological processes". He has studied how people's musical preferences and where they live influences their personality.

In 2009 he collaborated with BBC Lab UK to develop an online personality test that was featured in Child of our Time. 400,000 people participated and in 2015, the results were used to develop another test that revealed where people would be happiest living in the UK. In 2016, he worked with the Sutton Trust and Robert de Vries on a report titled A Winning Personality which examined the influence of children's personalities and their family background on future career prospects. "Conscientiousness, self-discipline, efficiency and organisation" were found to be associated with higher incomes and the children of professionals were found to be more extroverted.

Rentfrow has collaborated with computer scientist Cecilia Mascolo to develop smartphone applications that measuring behavior and psychological states unobtrusively.

As of 2020 his publications had been cited 12,000 times and he had an h-index of 40.

Selected publications

Books

References

  1. ↑ Rentfrow, Dr Jason (April 5, 2012). "Dr Jason Rentfrow". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Rentfrow, Peter J. (2020). "Rentfrow, Peter". Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences: 4415–4419. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1971. ISBN 978-3-319-24610-9.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  3. ↑ Peter Jason Rentfrow (2004). Message in a ballad: personality judgements [sic] based on music preferences (Thesis). William B Swann, Samuel D Gosling (Supervisors). University of Texas at Austin. OCLC 69019693.
  4. 1 2 Rentfrow, Peter J.; Jokela, Markus; Lamb, Michael E. (24 March 2015). "Regional Personality Differences in Great Britain". PLOS ONE. 10 (3) e0122245. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1022245R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0122245. PMC 4372610. PMID 25803819.
  5. ↑ "Peter Jason Rentfrow". rentfrow.socialpsychology.org. Social Psychology Network.
  6. ↑ "The Big Personality Test". Broadcast. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  7. ↑ "Study finds Scots are getting along just fine with other people". The Herald. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  8. ↑ Weale, Sally (14 January 2016). "Extrovert character traits shaped by background, study finds". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  9. ↑ Lathia, Neal; Pejovic, Veljko; Rachuri, Kiran K.; Mascolo, Cecilia; Musolesi, Mirco; Rentfrow, Peter J. (July 2013). "Smartphones for Large-Scale Behavior Change Interventions". IEEE Pervasive Computing. 12 (3): 66–73. Bibcode:2013IPCom..12c..66L. doi:10.1109/MPRV.2013.56. ISSN 1536-1268. S2CID 14134567.
  10. 1 2 Rentfrow, Peter J (September 27, 2014). Geographical psychology: exploring the interaction of environment and behavior. American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-4338-1539-3. OCLC 1137359444.