Annika Frach

Personality is consistently associated with many important life outcomes. However, workaholism research reports no or only weak association between personality and workaholism. We investigated two possible explanations for the weak relationship. Firstly, whether personality facets might mask or cancel each other. Secondly, the possibility of trait activation in situations with or without deadlines, both during work and in free time. We collected workaholism state and trait measures, and HEXACO responses, from 455 participants in the UK and the USA. We used hierarchical multiple regression to detect masking and cancellation, and conducted within-subject (work vs. free) and between-subject (deadline vs. no-deadline) moderation analyses to detect trait activation. We found various masking and cancellation effects. Situations significantly moderated the association between workaholism state and trait, supporting a possible activation of workaholism trait. We discuss the potential of the findings to facilitate the detection of stronger and more consistent personality-workaholism associations.