Do “night owls” arrive late to evening events less often than “habitual early risers” do? That has has yet to be tested.
A seemingly opposite question drives a new study — that tested who is punctual for morning events and who is not:
“Morningness as a Personality Predictor of Punctuality,” Laura Werner, Jennifer Geisler, Christoph Randler, Current Psychology, March 2015, Volume 34, Issue 1, pp 130-139. The authors, at the University of Education, Heidelberg, Germany, explain:
“Punctuality depends on situational factors but seems also a personality trait. Here, we assessed arrival time at a university course (behavioural measure) and punctuality with a self-report measure in relation to morningness-eveningness. We observed arrivals of students in their courses during the first lessons (starting at 8:15). 267 students (43 men, 222 women, 2 not specified) with a mean age of 22.76 ± 3.89 years participated in this study…. Morning oriented and conscientious students scored higher on punctuality.”
BPS Research Digest has a short essay about this new study.