Image credit: Wikimedia CommonsWorried about robots taking over your job? If you were both smart and interested in the arts and sciences during high school, you may not need to worry according to a study published recently in the European Journal of Personality.

According to the study, which looked at data from a sample group over the course of 50 years, a combination of personality traits, intelligence and vocational skills during adolescence were the likely predictors of how an employee might weather a changing labor market and if they are more or less likely to choose a position that will be automated in the future.

"We found that regardless of social background, people with higher levels of intelligence, higher levels of maturity and extraversion, higher interests in arts and sciences ... tended to select (or be selected) into less computerizable jobs 11 and 50 years later," the researchers wrote.

According to the research, for every 15-point increase in IQ was a seven percent drop in the likelihood of one’s job being automated.

So how do we prepare students for an automated job market? Researchers recommend that while it isn’t likely to change a person’s IQ, it might make sense to emphasize some personality traits in adolescence. For example, teaching high schoolers to do well in social interactions or encouraging them to get involved in activities associated with the arts and sciences.

"Robots can't perform as well as humans when it comes to complex social interactions," said Rodica Damian, assistant professor of social and personality psychology at the University of Houston and lead author of the study. "Humans also outperform machines when it comes to tasks that require creativity and a high degree of complexity that is not routine. As soon as you require flexibility, the human does better."

To read more about the study, click here.