Personality tests predict who will finish military pilot training
Swedish researchers identified which personality traits and assessment methods predict whether pilot candidates complete military flight school. The findings could help air forces worldwide reduce expensive training dropouts and improve recruitment screening, potentially cutting costs while maintaining safety standards.
Originaltitel: Relations of personality factors and suitability ratings to Swedish military pilot education completion
<p>Improved understanding of what it takes to be a pilot is an ongoing effort within aviation. We used an exploratory approach to examine whether there are personality-related differences in who completes the Swedish military pilot education. Assessment records of 182 applicants, accepted to the education between the years of 2004 and 2020 were studied (Mean age 24, SD 4.2 96% men, 4% women). Discriminant analysis was used to explore which personality traits and suitability ratings might be related to education completion. Analysis included suitability assessments made by senior pilots and by a psychologist, a number of traits assessed by the same psychologist, as well as the Commander Trait Inventory (CTI). The resulting discriminant function was significant (Wilk's Lambda = 0.808, (20) = 32.817, <em>p</em> =.035) with a canonical correlation of 0.44. The model was able to classify 74.1% of sample cases correctly. The modeling suggests that senior pilot assessment and psychologist assessment both predict education completion. Also contributing were the traits energy, professional motivation, study forecast and leader potential.</p>