Everyone has traits they might view negatively, such as laziness or impulsivity. Recognizing these traits is the first step toward growth. With the HIGH5 strengths test, you can uncover how these perceived negative traits could actually be indicative of underlying strengths, like strategic thinking or dynamic energy, which when properly managed, can lead to personal growth and greater success at work.
Psychologists and coaches often rely on negative personality traits in order to help people identify their weaknesses, discover negative attributes that deserve our attention, and focus on development.
Correcting your negative traits is only possible if you realize how they affect your well-being and career and start working on improving them. In this article, we will introduce the lists of common personality adjectives for interpersonal relationships and the workplace, review negative intellectual traits and bodily attributes and see typical negative signs for millennials. You will also learn about not-so-negative personality traits and find out how to turn your negative attributes into positive ones.
Pro Tip From HIGH5
Identify which of your traits you’ve viewed negatively and use the HIGH5 test to explore their underlying strengths. This can change your perspective on your personal challenges and highlight areas for growth.
What are negative qualities and traits?
Negative qualities, as well as positive qualities, are an integral part of the personality. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines personality as a relatively stable set of unique individual characteristics and dispositions that organize and influence their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
Personality assessments such as the Big Five are focused on the basic factors in personalities such as Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. However, these personality factors are rather neutral.
Unlike this, according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, there are sixteen different personality types, including ESTJ, INTP, and 14 others. These acronyms are a sum of four major personality traits: Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I), Sensing (S) – Intuition (N), Thinking (T) – Feeling (F), Judging (J) – Perceiving (P).
But none of these types of personality traits are completely negative or positive. Negative qualities can be defined as personality signs that lead to negative emotions and create a negative overall perception of a person.
Negative qualities are almost similar to character weaknesses such as shyness, lack of confidence, self-criticism, or arrogance. Negative character traits don’t allow us to reach our goals and use our full potential either in social relationships or at the workplace. Here is the list of the most common negative character traits that need our attention.
List of 33 most common negative character traits
- Manipulative
- Dishonest
- Greed
- Arrogance
- Irresponsible
- Impatient
- Judgemental
- Disrespectful
- Recklessness
- Cowardly
- Cynical
- Inflexible
- Indecisive
- Impulsive
- Rude
- Jealous
- Lazy
- Narcissistic
- Resentful
- Rigid
- Sarcastic
- Selfish
- Apathy
- Aggressive
- Inattentive
- Rigid
- Forgetful
- Indecisive
- Weak-willed
- Foolish
- Apathetic
- Argumentative
- Self-centered
Manipulative
Manipulative people use others to achieve their own goals, often through deceit and exploitation. They control and influence others for personal gain without regard for their feelings.
Dishonest
Dishonest individuals frequently lie or deceive others. They lack integrity and trustworthiness, making it hard for others to rely on them.
Greed
Greedy people have an insatiable desire for more, whether it’s money, power, or possessions. They prioritize their own gain over others’ needs.
Arrogance
Arrogant individuals have an inflated sense of self-importance. They often belittle others and are unwilling to consider other viewpoints.
Irresponsible
Irresponsible people neglect their duties and fail to follow through on commitments. They often cause problems for themselves and others due to their lack of reliability.
Impatient
Impatient individuals struggle to wait for things and often want immediate results. They can be easily frustrated and may rush tasks, leading to mistakes.
Judgemental
Judgmental people are quick to criticize others without understanding their situations. They often make unfair assessments based on limited information.
Disrespectful
Disrespectful individuals do not show consideration or courtesy to others. They often belittle, insult, or disregard the feelings and rights of others.
Recklessness
Reckless people act without considering the consequences of their actions. Their behavior can be dangerous to themselves and others.
Cowardly
Cowardly individuals avoid taking risks and facing challenges due to fear. They often lack the courage to stand up for themselves or others.
Cynical
Cynical people have a pessimistic outlook and often distrust others’ motives. They believe that people are generally selfish and insincere.
Inflexible
Inflexible individuals are unwilling to adapt to new situations or ideas. They rigidly adhere to their own ways and resist change.
Indecisive
Indecisive people struggle to make decisions and often second-guess themselves. This can lead to missed opportunities and frustration.
Impulsive
Impulsive individuals act on their immediate desires without thinking things through. Their hasty decisions can lead to unintended consequences.
Rude
Rude people display a lack of manners and consideration for others. They often behave disrespectfully and can offend those around them.
Jealous
Jealous individuals feel envious of others’ achievements, possessions, or relationships. This emotion can lead to resentment and insecurity.
Lazy
Lazy people avoid effort and responsibility, preferring to do as little as possible. Their lack of motivation can hinder personal and professional growth.
Narcissistic
Narcissistic individuals have an excessive interest in themselves and their appearance. They often seek admiration and have little regard for others’ feelings.
Resentful
Resentful people hold onto feelings of bitterness and anger over perceived wrongs. This can lead to ongoing grudges and negative interactions.
Rigid
Rigid individuals are unwilling to be flexible or open-minded. They stick strictly to their own rules and resist new ideas.
Sarcastic
Sarcastic people use irony and mockery to convey contempt. Their remarks can be hurtful and undermine positive communication.
Selfish
Selfish individuals prioritize their own needs and desires above those of others. They often lack consideration for how their actions affect others.
Apathy
Apathetic people show a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. They are often disengaged and indifferent to what is happening around them.
Aggressive
Aggressive individuals exhibit hostile or violent behavior. They often assert themselves in a forceful and intimidating manner.
Inattentive
Inattentive people struggle to focus and often miss important details. Their lack of attention can lead to mistakes and misunderstandings.
Forgetful
Forgetful individuals frequently fail to remember things. This trait can lead to missed appointments and unfulfilled responsibilities.
Weak-willed
Weak-willed people have difficulty sticking to their decisions and goals. They easily give in to temptation or pressure from others.
Foolish
Foolish individuals make poor decisions due to a lack of good judgment. Their actions often lead to negative consequences.
Apathetic
Apathetic people show little interest or concern for things that typically matter to others. Their lack of enthusiasm can be disengaging.
Argumentative
Argumentative individuals often engage in disputes and enjoy contradicting others. They frequently provoke disagreements and conflict.
Self-centered
Self-centered people focus excessively on their own needs and interests. They often disregard others’ perspectives and needs.
Types of negative traits
People usually have complex sets of negative character traits. Some of our negative personality signs are revealed in social relationships, while others hinder us from growing our personality or reaching our career goals. Generally, negative traits can be divided into negative interpersonal and intellectual traits.
Negative interpersonal Traits
Negative interpersonal traits are revealed in the process of communication with other people. Although negative interpersonal traits characterize everyone more or less, people who show off their weaknesses in relationships are perceived more negatively.
Examples of Negative Interpersonal Traits
- Apathetic
- Argumentative
- Cowardly
- Impulsive
- Self-centered
- Dishonest
- Jealous
- Sarcastic
- Arrogant
Negative intellectual traits
Intellectual traits are the most obvious in the academic field. Some of the most common intellectual traits include independence, confidence, fair-mindedness, and integrity. However, people also possess plenty of negative intellectual traits that don’t allow them to achieve success at university or in school.
Examples of negative intellectual traits
- Inattentive
- Lazy
- Rigid
- Irresponsible
- Forgetful
- Impatient
- Indecisive
- Inflexible
- Weak-willed
- Foolish
How do I change my negative qualities into positive qualities?
Accepting negative traits is crucial, but understanding them is transformative. The HIGH5 strengths test helps you delve deeper into these traits, showing how what might seem like impulsivity could actually reflect a capacity for rapid decision-making. This deeper understanding can inspire you to harness these traits positively, enhancing both self-concept and personal efficacy.
However, the desire to change our personality is natural. For example, introverted people might wish to be more sociable, or impulsive people might wish to control their emotions better. Personality traits are fixed throughout our lives, but as psychologists prove, changing your negative qualities and turning them into positive ones is possible. In fact, longitudinal studies show that personality gets better over time.
This means that as we age, our negative traits naturally turn into positive ones. However, you don’t have to wait in order to improve your personality and adopt positive qualities. Just try to identify your negative character traits, discover positive traits you wish to develop, and be more observant of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
By understanding personality traits and focusing on desired personal qualities, you can develop character strengths and integrate them into your existing sets of personality traits.
Pro Tip From HIGH5
After taking the HIGH5 test, list your top five strengths alongside your negative traits. Consider practical ways you can use your strengths to mitigate or transform these negative traits into something constructive.
Negative personal attributes
When it comes to describing a person, we don’t focus only on personality qualities such as self-confidence, generosity, or greed. Instead, we rely on bodily attributes that are easier to perceive at first glance.
According to the law of negative bias, we perceive negative personal attributes such as having unstyled hair or being unathletic more easily than positive ones. Negative personal attributes consist of general appearance and bodily attributes.
Negative appearance
Appearance is the first thing that creates our impression when we first meet people. First impressions play the biggest role in forming the appraisal of others. Here are some of the most common adjectives of negative appearance.
10 examples of negative appearance
- Unattractive
- Disagreeable
- Plain-looking
- Unpleasant
- Ill-favored
- Unfit
- Unhealthy
- Hideous
- Out of shape
- Weak
Negative bodily attributes
Not only general appearance, but people also rely on specific bodily attributes in order to form an impression on others. Assessing people by their bodily attributes leads to stigmatization and stereotypes, but we still automatically assess people based on their bodily attributes. Here is the list of the most common negative bodily attributes.
10 examples of negative bodily attributes
- Unstyled hair
- Ugly face
- Bad teeth
- Too short
- Unathletic
- Slight
- Bad posture
- Bad skin
- Overweight
- Poor figure
Negative qualities for workplace
Awareness of negative qualities is just the beginning; transforming them is key to professional advancement. The HIGH5 strengths test identifies your unique strengths and shows how they can mitigate or even capitalize on your workplace challenges. For instance, a tendency to be ‘careless’ might be reframed as a propensity for innovation, encouraging you to channel this trait into creative problem-solving.
Besides, asking questions about negative qualities is very common in the process of job interviews. Here are some of the most common negative qualities that might slow down your progress at the workplace.
10 examples of negative bodily attributes
- Shy
- Untimely
- Careless
- Irresponsible
- Narrow-minded
- Unfocused
- Bossy
- Disloyal
- Nervous
- Unpredictable
Pro Tip From HIGH5
Discuss your HIGH5 strengths with your manager to find roles or tasks that align better with your natural abilities, turning potential workplace negatives into opportunities for success and satisfaction.
Negative character traits of millennials
Millennials are people who grew up in the Internet age. Therefore, social media and mainstream opinions significantly affected their personality. Considering stereotypes and prejudices that are transformed through social media channels, millennials are more likely to have negative personality traits.
For example, the New York Times defines millennials as narcissistic, lazy, and indecisive people. While it might not be completely true, Millennials actually possess some negative character traits as a result of the social environment they grow up in. Here are the most common negative traits of millennials.
List of 7 negative character traits of millennials
- Narcissistic
- Too certain
- Selfishness
- Perfectionism
- Overly independence
- Indecisive Impatience
- Too ambitious
Negative character traits that can be positive
Labeling traits solely as negative often overlooks their potential. By using the HIGH5 test, you can discover how characteristics typically seen as drawbacks, like skepticism or reservedness, can actually be assets. This nuanced understanding helps you leverage these traits strategically, both in personal relationships and at work.
For example, even when being ambitious is considered something bad, ambition helps us to achieve our goals. Similarly, being sensitive could slow down your progress at work, but it also means that you’re empathetic towards people. Here is the list of negative character traits that actually can be very positive.
List of 7 negative character traits that can be positive
- Ambitious
- Sensitive
- Procrastinator
- Neurotic
- Pessimistic
- Messy
- Cynical
Pro Tip From HIGH5
Regularly challenge yourself to reframe a negative trait as a strength in professional scenarios. For example, if ‘impatience’ is a trait, consider how this can be utilized to drive quick decision-making in fast-paced project environments.
What are positive character traits?
Other than negative traits that can be considered positive, people also possess plenty of character traits that are completely positive. Positive personality traits are personality strengths such as honesty, loyalty, courage, and self-confidence.
These personality traits help us use our full potential to grow and develop professionally or individually. Positive personality traits are usually described with positive personality adjectives and they help us feel better about ourselves, improve our interpersonal relationships, and achieve our goals.
Negative character traits FAQ
What are the six traits of a bad character?
The major personality traits of a bad character include:
- Arrogance
- Cruelty
- Bad temperament
- Disagreeableness
- Bossy attitude
- Selfishness
Is shyness a negative trait?
Shyness is considered a negative trait because it’s an unpleasant emotional state that leads to stress and anxiety and detaches individuals from society. However, shyness also has a positive side. Specifically, shy people have the ability to accomplish their goals on their own without others’ help or approval.
What are neutral personality traits?
The majority of personality traits aren’t 100% negative or positive. There are plenty of neutral personality traits that receive either good or bad connotations depending on the context. Some of the most common neutral personality traits are:
- Observant
- Self-reserved
- Stylish
- Strange
- Serious
