Differences in Conflict Resolution and Social Interaction Based on the
Big Five Personality Traits
Ziyuan Li
Stamford American International School, 25 Man Fuk Rd, Ho Man Tin, Singapore, Singapore
Keywords: Personality, Trait, Extrivert.
Abstract: Socializing is an essential part of people's daily lives, but because of the large population in the world, people
with different personalities have different ways of getting along. This leads to a lot of people face a lot of
communication problems when socializing, resulting in conflict. This paper analyzes the Big Five
personalities and discusses their differences in conflict resolution and social interaction. Openness,
conscientiousness, and extroversion positively correlate with cooperative conflict management, while
neuroticism shows a negative correlation. Agreeableness and neuroticism positively correlate with submissive
conflict management, whereas conscientiousness and extroversion correlate negatively. Openness and
agreeableness are negatively correlated with competitive conflict management. At the social level,
conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism positively correlate with social continuity, while
extroversion correlates negatively. Initiative positively correlates with extroversion and negatively with
neuroticism. Openness and agreeableness negatively correlate with competition; openness correlates
positively with creativity, while conscientiousness negatively correlates with compatibility. This paper
suggests that individuals adopt corresponding ways to get along with others according to different personality
traits in future social interactions to alleviate conflicts. This study links the personality with common problems
in life, making them better integrated into daily life, helping to promote interpersonal communication and
alleviate interpersonal conflicts.
1 INTRODUCTION
In human society, conflict and social interaction are
unavoidable aspects of behavior. Whether in the
workplace, family, or other interpersonal
relationships, the strategies individuals use to resolve
conflicts and the behavioral patterns they exhibit in
social interactions significantly influence their social
functioning and mental health. In recent years, an
increasing number of young people have encountered
difficulties in socializing, often opting for online
communication over face-to-face interactions (Wang,
2023). This shift not only diminishes their offline
social skills but also heightens the likelihood of
conflicts during in-person interactions.
Even before the rise of Internet-based
communication, the prevalence of conflict did not
notably decrease. Behavioral differences among
individuals in similar situations have always existed.
These differences are shaped not only by the
complexity of external circumstances but also by the
individual's inherent personality traits. Widely
recognized in psychology, the Big Five personality
model categorizes personality into five dimensions:
openness, conscientiousness, extroversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism (An et al., 2017). This
model offers a robust theoretical framework for
understanding behavioral variations across
individuals.
For example, when a person with high
extroversion, meet a person with high neuroticism.
Their social styles are so different that it is difficult
not to have conflicts. How can he, who always do
things his own way, perfectly avoid all the other’s
sensitive nerves? This kind of situation occurs
frequently in daily life, and it also brings about many
social conflicts. Especially in public places such as
schools and hospitals, once a conflict occurs, it will
be difficult to end it. Therefore, administrators of
many public places will try their best to avoid
conflicts.
This article studies the differences in conflict
resolution and social interaction among the Big Five
personalities, and cites examples of different
personalities’ coping methods and ways of getting
Li, Z.
Differences in Conflict Resolution and Social Interaction Based on the Big Five Personality Traits.
DOI: 10.5220/0014114100004942
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 371-377
ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7
Proceedings Copyright © 2026 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda.
371

along, thereby increasing cognition and reducing
social conflicts.
2 BIG FIVE PERSONALITY
TRAITS
The Big Five personality model, also known as the
five personality trait model, is one of the important
theoretical frameworks used in modern psychology to
describe human personality
2.1 Openness to Experience
Openness emphasizes imagination and insight.
People with high openness tend to have a strong
interest in the world and society, are obsessed with
exploration, and crave new things. On the contrary,
people with low openness tend to be more traditional
in thinking, have a certain resistance to new things,
and are not good at abstract thinking (Cherry). For
people with high openness, they may be more
inclined to choose cooperative conflict management
to meet their innovation and learning needs
2.2 Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness focuses more on self-control,
diligence, responsibility and reliability. Whether you
are conscientious determines whether you can
succeed (Lian, 2017). People with high
conscientiousness are good at self-regulation. They
are often well-organized, have clear goals, are used to
thinking carefully and are firm in their decisions. On
the other hand, people with low conscientiousness
tend to be at a loss and have vague goals (Friedman
et al., 1993). Discussing ways to deal with conflict
together can help high conscientiousness people meet
their responsibility and pursuit of perfection.
2.3 Extroversion
The defining factor of an extroverted personality is
whether or not your behavior is expressive. People
with high extroversion tend to be more talkative and
social. They tend to be very warm and friendly. To
outsiders, they sometimes appear to be pushy and
unable to be alone (Cherry). People with low
extroversion tend to be more solitary and more self-
centered. Many people with low extroversion have
high openness and wild imaginations. Extroverts are
good at expressing their own ideas, and can better
exchange ideas and take care of the needs of both
parties in collaborative discussions.
2.4 Agreeableness
Agreeableness refers to empathy and the tendency to
cooperate with others. People with high
agreeableness are more compassionate, able to
understand and empathize with others (Shildibekov,
2024). They support others and want to be supported
by others. People with low agreeableness tend to be
more competitive and aggressive and are often
unwilling to cooperate with others.
2.5 Neuroticism
Neuroticism is a core personality trait characterized
by emotional instability, heightened anxiety, self-
doubt, depression, and other negative emotions. Like
other personality traits, it exists on a spectrum.
Individuals with high levels of neuroticism are easily
stimulated and may struggle to calm down after
becoming upset (Cuncic, 2023). In contrast, those
with low levels of neuroticism tend to be more
emotionally stable and exhibit strong self-regulation
skills.
3 CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Conflict is a struggle that arises when there are
differences in opinions and interests. It is an
inevitable problem in social situations. Therefore, it
is particularly important to understand how to deal
with and resolve conflicts. In daily life, there are five
ways to deal with conflicts, including avoidance,
competition, tolerance, cooperation, and compromise
(Herrity, 2024).
3.1 Avoidance
Although conflict avoidance is a particularly common
behavior, it can damage interpersonal relationships
and hinder personal growth. Conflict avoidance is a
subconscious psychological reaction when facing
conflict, which refers to avoiding and covering up
problems (NeuroLaunch.com, 2024). The main
reason for its occurrence is closely related to avoidant
attachment. Children are often ignored, suppressed or
controlled in their families and environments, which
will lead them to show behaviors and thoughts of
avoiding problems to protect themselves
(Vzaichenko, 2023).
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3.2 Competition
Competition, also known as competitive conflict
management style, refers to the use of competition to
win and resolve conflicts. It is usually manifested as
self-confidence and unwillingness to cooperate.
Generally speaking, people with this style are
unwilling to consider other people's opinions. They
prefer direct and effective communication. They are
also often better at protecting personal rights and
solving key problems. Not only that, they are also
likely to be overconfident and ultimately fail (Seo,
2024).
3.3 Tolerance
Inclusion, also known as inclusive conflict
management style, means trying to meet other
people's conditions and yielding to others as much as
possible. However, this is actually a sign of resolving
conflicts. Supporting other people's plans is
equivalent to giving respect and is the best way to
solve problems in the short term. Although this style
may seem like you are losing your advantage, it is
actually helping you build connections (Pollack,
2024).
3.4 Cooperation
Collaborative conflict management is about easing
conflicts and unifying different viewpoints through
collaborative communication (Admin, 2024). This
approach can minimize the negative impact of
conflicts and resolve them in a more peaceful way,
while also improving the credibility of the parties
involved. However, this approach also takes longer
because it requires reaching agreement on
viewpoints.
3.5 Compromise
Compromise conflict management means that the
conflicting parties reach an agreement to resolve the
problem in a fair way. Unlike cooperative conflict
management, this approach is faster (Pollack, 2024).
When dealing with conflicts, this approach helps to
promote mutual respect and cooperation, and bring
the two parties closer together. Since the conflicting
parties need to reach a consensus and make trade-offs,
if one party is unwilling to give up its own rights and
interests, the conflict cannot be resolved.
4 DIFFERENCES IN CONFLICT
RESOLUTION STYLES
AMONG THE BIG FIVE
PERSONALITY TYPES
People with different personality traits have different
cognitive and behavioral pattern, but no matter what
kind of personality, conflicts cannot be avoided.
When dealing with conflicts, what solutions will they
choose? How will people with different personality
traits differ in the methods they choose? This article
analyzes the characteristics of different personality
traits and the conditions required for the methods of
dealing with conflicts, and draws the following
results:
4.1 Openness to Experience
People with high openness have a lot of creativity and
imagination, which means they also have strong self-
reflection (Chen & Liu, 2024). They know their needs
clearly, are willing to accept other people's opinions,
and create new solutions to ensure that both parties'
interests are balanced. Therefore, people with high
openness are more suitable for cooperative conflict
management to better show their personality.People
with low openness are more conservative than those
with high openness, which means they often question
new ideas and are unwilling to try new things. As a
result, people with low openness will stick to their
original ideas and ignore other people's opinions.
Studies have shown that competitive conflict
management is negatively correlated with openness
(Wang, 2024). The less open people are, the more
likely they are to choose competitive conflict
management to resolve conflicts.
4.2 Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is positively correlated with
cooperative conflict management and negatively
correlated with avoidant conflict management
(Douding). People with higher conscientiousness are
more likely to choose cooperative conflict
management when encountering conflicts. They are
very persistent in their goals, so they will try to
resolve conflicts as fairly as possible. They can
protect the interests of both parties while resolving
conflicts. People with lower conscientiousness are
more likely to choose avoidant conflict management.
Most of them are very casual, irresponsible, and
prefer to escape when encountering difficulties.
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4.3 Extroversion
People who are more extroverted are more sociable
and better at expressing their ideas. They are better
communicators and pay special attention to
interpersonal relationships. Therefore, they are likely
to choose cooperative conflict management to resolve
conflicts. People with low extroversion are more
likely to compromise or submit to conflict
management. They like to be quiet and are not good
at communication. Both methods can be carried out
with less communication and are well suited to their
personality traits.
4.4 Agreeableness
High-agreeableness people are primarily interested in
maintaining relationships. They tend to prioritize
relationships and try to please others (Bleckmann et
al., 2024). This means that when conflicts arise, they
prioritize catering to the opinions of others in order to
make a good impression on themselves (Zhang,
2016). Therefore, people with high affinity are most
likely to choose a compromise conflict management
style. Low-agreeableness people, on the other hand,
are mostly self-centered. They tend not to take into
account the thoughts and feelings of others, so they
may use competitive conflict management to assert
their own interests in the face of conflict. Of course,
they may opt for more peaceful, cooperative conflict
management to achieve their goals.
4.5 Neuroticism
Neuroticism corresponds to a person's sensitivity.
People with high neuroticism are particularly
sensitive, which sometimes causes them to have
problems in communication. Once a conflict occurs,
their emotions become more sensitive, which reduces
the efficiency of communication. They may be more
likely to use compromise conflict management to
resolve the conflict at hand. People with low
neuroticism may be more calm and can conduct
systematic analysis. Therefore, cooperative conflict
management may be particularly suitable for them.
The above discussion is mostly carried out in the
form of questionnaire survey, through the
questionnaire, access to relevant data. Different age
groups were investigated. The frequency of choice of
conflict handling style was the dependent variable
and personality trait was the independent variable. In
order to reduce the chance of the result, the
experimenter conducted the experiment several
times, and took the average value of the data as the
final result. This paper believes that the experimental
design can reduce the error to the greatest extent, but
it still cannot take into account the existence of
special cases. Of course, the error in this aspect will
not have much impact on the result, so it can be
ignored.
5 DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL
INTERACTION AMONG THE
BIG FIVE PERSONALITIES
According to the different characteristics of the big
five personalities, social interaction is divided into
five different characteristics: initiative, continuity,
compatibility, competitiveness and sensitivity. They
represent extroversion, conscientiousness, openness,
competition and emotional stability. In the daily
social process, different personality traits will have
different social manifestations, and therefore will
have different characteristics. The following is an
analysis of the relationship between each personality
trait and its characteristics.
5.1 Openness to Experience
Socially, people with high openness are more
compatible. They have active minds, are more
creative, are good at starting conversations and
providing novel ideas. In addition, higher openness
can also help them better participate in the
communication of different topics (Chen, 2019).
They are open to new ideas and knowledge and are
able to converse with people from different cultures.
People with low openness are conservative in their
thinking and more likely to conflict with others over
disagreements. They are more competitive than
people with high openness. In order to protect
themselves from being changed by others, people
with low openness tend to be very timid when
arguing.
5.2 Conscientiousness
Responsible people have a high sense of
responsibility and are able to finish what they start.
Reliability is their most prominent feature, making
people feel at ease and comfortable, so their social
relationships tend to have strong continuity. For
example, many emotionally sensitive people like to
be around reliable people. In addition, people with
high conscientiousness are less dependent on social
media, which also leads to increased social initiative
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(Wei, 2017). It is speculated in this paper that people
with high conscientiousness focus on whether
something is done well, so they are more likely to
have social competition to satisfy their obsession with
perfection. People with low conscientiousness are
more casual than people with high conscientiousness.
They are less responsible and more likely to make
mistakes (Wang, 2013). As a result, they have less
social continuity, but this can also allow them to be
more proactive, thus compensating for the lack of
continuity. Lower conscientiousness makes them
have lower standards for socializing, which facilitates
their socializing and makes them have higher
compatibility.
5.3 Extroversion
People with high extroversion are more sociable and
willing to interact with others, so their social initiative
is higher (An, 2005). They are good at starting
conversations, and their cheerful personality can also
relieve stress (Zhao et al., 2014). However, because
they are mostly independent, their social continuity is
not necessarily high, that is, they tend not to stay in a
relationship for very long time. Conversely, people
with low extroversion have higher social continuity.
They focus on the depth of the relationship rather than
frequent socializing. The article speculates that
introverts have a richer spiritual world, which may
also lead to their increased emotional sensitivity,
which may negatively affect their social continuity.
5.4 Agreeableness
People with high agreeableness are relationship-
oriented, and they tend to maintain relationships
longer. Moreover, studies have shown that people
with high agreeableness can alleviate the sense of
alienation caused by talking to strangers, which is
more conducive to improving their social continuity
(Li, 2023). Because people with high agreeableness
focus on good social relationships, they are also more
compatible than other personality traits and can get
along with people from different cultural
backgrounds. However, people with low
agreeableness are more concerned with self-worth.
They rarely initiate conversations with others, even
on the Internet (Jiang & Jin, 2018). So, in contrast,
people with low agreeableness tend to have lower
social initiative. Due to its self-centered thinking, it
occasionally has a high level of competitiveness.
5.5 Neuroticism
Highly neurotic people have a lot of trouble
socializing. They are emotionally sensitive, prone to
more negative emotions, and have higher sensitivity
in social interactions (Liu, 2012). This can also lead
to decreased social skills and compatibility. As a
result, they often feel anxious, which reduces their
social initiative (Wu, 2023). People with low
neuroticism tend to be emotionally stable. Socially,
their lower sensitivity is a big advantage. Stable
emotions lead to longer lasting relationships; The
reduced competitiveness also reduced their social
conflict and improved social continuity. Lower
neuroticism also reduced the amount of time they
spent online, which indirectly increased their social
initiative (Shi et al., 2017).
This part of the content is an indirect inference
based on previous research. In this paper, the
interpretation and research of the same personality
trait in different articles are correlated with different
social characteristics to get the final conclusion. The
biggest drawback of this part is that the final
conclusion is only based on speculation and related
experiments. This can lead to deviations from
implementation.
6 CONCLUSION
In daily social life, people with different personality
traits will behave differently. As a result, many
people face more difficulties in socializing. This
paper studies the differences in conflict resolution
styles and social interactions of the big five
personalities, and finally draws the following
conclusions: In terms of conflict resolution styles, 1)
openness, conscientiousness and extroversion are
positively correlated with cooperative conflict
management, while neuroticism is negatively
correlated with cooperative conflict management; 2)
Agreeableness and neuroticism were positively
correlated with compliant conflict management,
while conscientiousness and extroversion were
negatively correlated with compliant conflict
management; 3) Openness and agreeableness are
negatively correlated with competition conflict
management. The rest of the conflict management
styles have no obvious personality traits that fit. In
terms of social interaction, 1) conscientiousness,
agreeableness and neuroticism were positively
correlated with continuity, while extroversion was
negatively correlated with continuity; 2) Initiative
was positively correlated with extroversion and
Differences in Conflict Resolution and Social Interaction Based on the Big Five Personality Traits
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negatively correlated with neuroticism; 3) Openness
and agreeableness are negatively correlated with
competitiveness; 4) Openness is positively correlated
with creativity; 5) Conscientiousness is negatively
correlated with compatibility. Based on the research
conclusions, this paper suggests that researchers can
use the conclusions in their future social life to
communicate with people with different personality
traits in different ways and alleviate conflicts. In this
study, the characteristics of the big five personalities
are associated with common problems in life, making
them more integrated into daily life, helping to
promote people's communication with each other,
and helping people to alleviate interpersonal
conflicts.
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