Fighting Fuzzy Thinking on Personality Change

In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake talk about a recent article published by John Burn-Murdoch for the Financial Times that sparked a lot of interest among many of Ryne’s colleagues in the world of personality psychology. The article takes a look at an Understanding America Study that shows a significant decline in conscientiousness, particularly among young adults. It also shows decreases in agreeableness and extraversion and an increase in neuroticism. So, a) is it correct and b) does it really matter if it is?