In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Dr. Victoria Grady, Associate Professor of Management at George Mason University's Costello College of Business, to talk about change. More specifically, we dive into the psychology behind why people respond to change the way they do. Change affects us all, but how it affects us varies widely. Some find change to be personally disruptive or destructive, while others seem to just roll with the punches. So, what’s go...
Apr 21, 2026•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 148
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, ChatGPT interviews Ryne and Blake about personality, leadership, and team dynamics. Yes, you read that correctly. Ryne and Blake answer 10 questions generated by ChatGPT in what turned out to be a fun and thought-provoking discussion prompted by one of the world's most popular AI engines.
Apr 07, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 147
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by world-renowned author and journalist, Jack El-Hai, to discuss the personality of evil, with a specific focus on the personalities of authoritarians and fascists. This was the focus of his best-selling 2013 book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist , which inspired the 2025 movie, Nuremberg , currently streaming on Netflix, which features not one, but two Academy Award winning actors. In the movie Russell Crowe plays the ...
Mar 25, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 146
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake talk about one of the top headlines in the media today that isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future: With the exponential proliferation of artificial intelligence and its impact on the global workforce, what skills will humans need to remain relevant and employed? Opinions vary on what that impact will look like. Some think AI is coming for all of our jobs and will sooner rather than later deem human workers unnecessary. ...
Mar 10, 2026•57 min•Ep. 145
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Nigel Nicholson, PhD, author and Emeritus Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School, to talk about unique individuality, which is the focus of his new book, Unique You: How Individuality Works and Why It Matters. Although Nigel’s esteemed career as a business psychologist has focused on things like the application of evolutionary theory in business and management, educational innovation, and co...
Feb 24, 2026•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 144
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Peter Harms, PhD, a Frank Schultz Professor of Management at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Business, to talk about the history and psychology of underdogs. World history is littered with stories and legends of people or groups of people who have defied the odds in the face of almost sure defeat, making them the closest thing to immortal a human being can fathom outside of religion and deities. ...
Feb 10, 2026•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 143
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Kevin Mitchell, PhD, the Talent and Organizational Development Manager at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, to talk about developing technical experts into leaders. In theory, any high performer regardless of their area of expertise should at some point be rewarded with a leadership position. But sometimes what makes someone a great software developer or network engineer might not translate to success once they ascend to...
Jan 27, 2026•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 142
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by new Hogan Assessments CEO, Allison Howell, to discuss the pros and cons of gossip in the workplace. Gossip is common in all facets of our everyday lives but, in the workplace, gossip is often viewed as disruptive and unproductive. However, more recently gossip has been seen in a more positive light. What was once perceived as an organization’s worst enemy is now often its biggest ally. This is a topic Allison explo...
Jan 13, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 141
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake continue their annual tradition of breaking down the top derailers of the year. Who made the list in 2025? Give it a listen to find out.
Dec 23, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 140
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake discuss the topic of workplace freeloaders. This is a topic that has been their minds recently based on an interview Ryne did with the media outlet, Quartz. That interview went so well that they wanted to do an episode specifically on freeloaders and how they show up in the workplace.
Dec 09, 2025•53 min•Ep. 139
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne is joined by special guest host Valerie Stone, Hogan’s marketing director, who interviews Ryne to discuss his life, his role at Hogan, and his career journey.
Nov 25, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 138
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Blake is joined by special guest host Valerie Stone, Hogan's marketing director, who interviews Blake to discuss his life, his role at Hogan, and his career journey. Many listeners probably noticed that there was not a new episode last week, and that was for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that Ryne has had an extensive international travel schedule in the second half of 2025. The other reason is that this time of year is extremely ...
Nov 11, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 137
In the final spooky season episode of The Science of Personality in 2025, Ryne and Blake are joined by Christopher Bader, PhD, professor and chair of the department of sociology at Chapman University, to talk about why people believe in the paranormal. Christopher has studied the paranormal for more than 20 years, and he also takes his work out into the field, having participated in several ghost hunts, observed support groups for UFO abductees, and joined in on bigfoot investigations. In additi...
Oct 21, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 136
Spooky season is back! In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and I are joined by Chris French, PhD, professor emeritus and former Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, to talk about the psychology of demonology, possession, and exorcism. With his primary area of research being the psychology of paranormal beliefs and anomalous experiences, Chris is a frequent radio and television guest who casts a sk...
Oct 07, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 135
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Nadine Maliakkal, PhD, a consultant on Hogan's Talent Analytics team, to talk about the work Hogan has been doing in the world of sports. Over the past five years, Hogan has experienced a huge uptick in work with some of the world’s leading sports teams and organizations. Whether it’s helping teams predict performance of NBA basketball players or helping NFL teams draft the best American football players, organizat...
Sep 23, 2025•58 min•Ep. 134
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake answer listener questions they have received in recent weeks. For listeners interested in asking questions for Ryne and Blake to answer on a future listener mailbag episode, shoot them an email at hello@thescienceofpersonality.com. Cheers!
Sep 09, 2025•50 min•Ep. 133
In this special episode of The Science of Personality, Blake is joined by three Hogan distributors, Seniora El-Hage of Phoenix Consulting, Victoria Zapata of HR Tools, and Rene Kusch, PhD, of RELEVANT Management Consultancy, to discuss the inside of personality. This episode was recorded live and on video in May at Heiga Studios in Miami, Florida during Hogan Assessments' international distributor summit. A link to the video is below. Cheers! Global Spotlight Series: The Inside of Personality...
Sep 02, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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...
Aug 26, 2025•47 min•Ep. 132
In this special episode of The Science of Personality, Blake is joined three Hogan distributors, Nicole Neubauer of Personality Guidance AG, Peter Berry of Peter Berry Consultancy, and Gicheha Gitau of Career Connection, to discuss the dark side of personality. This episode was recorded live and on video in May at Heiga Studios in Miami, Florida during Hogan Assessments' international distributor summit. A link to the video is below. Cheers! Global Spotlight Series: The Dark Side of Personality...
Aug 19, 2025•50 min
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Coaching.com CEO, Charlotte Saulny, to talk about how organizations can create a coaching culture. With more than 20 years of senior leadership experience in professional services, Charlotte has dedicated her career to helping people thrive in the workplace. She has worked directly with many of the heavy hitters in the corporate world, including Hilton, Cisco, Coca-Cola, and Facebook, and as a senior executive at A...
Aug 12, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 131
In this special episode of The Science of Personality, Blake is joined three Hogan distributors, Jani Wiggett of JVR Africa, Melvyn Payne of Advanced People Strategies, and Roberto Santos of Ateliê RH, to discuss the bright side of personality. This episode was recorded live and on video in May at Heiga Studios in Miami, Florida during Hogan Assessments' international distributor summit. A link to the video is below. Cheers! Hogan Global Spotlight: The Bright Side of Personality...
Aug 05, 2025•42 min
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by David Greenberg, PhD, a psychologist, neuroscientist, and musician who is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of music, and in today’s episode David is going to help us explore the topic of music and personality. What does the music we listen to say about our personalities? How do our personalities frame the various kinds of music we listen to? Well, we couldn’t have asked for a better guest to hel...
Jul 29, 2025•1 hr 18 min
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Ebenezer Edema-Sillo, a Hogan Assessments Data Science Intern and 5th year PhD student at the University of Houston, to talk about Workplace TikTok trends. It’s no secret that in today’s society people utilize social media platforms like TikTok to shine a light on current workplace trends like quiet quitting or acting your wage, but how do these trends relate to our personality characteristics or values?
Jul 19, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 129
In the latest episode of the The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake to talk about values and culture fit and why it’s so crucial, particularly when it comes to executive selection. At Hogan we talk a lot about values. In fact, we think SO highly of values that we introduced an assessment that measures one’s values all the way back in 1996. Fast forward to 2025 and they are just as important, and arguably much more important, today that they’ve ever been. This is a topic that Ryne and his ind...
Jul 01, 2025•51 min•Ep. 128
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality , Ryne and Blake celebrate the podcast’s five-year anniversary with a look back at some of the most impactful conversations to date. From exploring the dark side of personality to digging into careers and the broader impact of personality, this special episode features clips from standout moments across each season, including: Year 1: The Dark Side of Personality ft. Peter Harms, PhD Year 2: Personality, Leadership, and the Consequences featuri...
Jun 17, 2025•53 min•Ep. 127
In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Melvyn Payne, Commercial Director at Advanced People Strategies out of the UK, to talk about potential to performance. The word potential gets thrown around a lot in HR and talent management circles, but potential on its own really means nothing if it doesn’t translate to performance. As the commercial director of one of Hogan’s top international distributors at APS, few people in the world of Hogan know more about...
Jun 03, 2025•53 min•Ep. 126
In the latest the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake talk about authenticity. We’ve all heard the saying before: “Be your authentic self.” In fact, common wisdom for years has suggested that authenticity is a good thing, and few have doubted the merits of that “wisdom.” But what if we were to tell you this might actually be the opposite and could actually hurt your career? Ryne and Blake address that and so much more in this episode.
May 20, 2025•47 min•Ep. 125
In this special episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake interview guests in person at the 2025 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Conference in Denver. Featured guests include: - Rob Kaiser, President, Kaiser Leadership Solutions o Topic: Using Hogan in private equity - Ellen Lovell, PhD, Principal Workforce Transformation Consultant, Perceptyx o Topic: Trends in organizational wellbeing - Jessie McClure, Senior Consultant, Hogan Assessments o Topic: Trends...
May 13, 2025•40 min
In that latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by Jackie Sahm, Hogan’s Vice President of Integrated Solutions, to talk about what activates your dark side. With Jackie being one of the world’s foremost experts in interpreting Hogan scales and facilitating Hogan feedback sessions, not to mention her previous role as a consultant for numerous Fortune 500 companies and Hogan’s Director of Global Learning, she's the perfect guest to explore this aspect of the dark si...
May 06, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 124
In this special episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake interview guests in person at the 2025 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Conference in Denver. Featured guests include: - Ty Fezzey, PhD Student, University of Alabama o Topic: Competitiveness - Bradley Brummel, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Houston o Topic: Leader identity - Pradnya Parasher, PhD, Managing Director, ThreeFish Consulting o Topic: Leadership emergence in India - Georgi Ya...
Apr 29, 2025•51 min
