The present article reanalyzed data collected by Toomela (2003). The data contain personality self ratings and cognitive ability test results from n = 912 men with military background. In his original article Toomela showed that in the group with the highest cognitive ability, Big-Five-Neuroticism and -Conscientiousness were substantially correlated and could no longer be clearly separated using exploratory factor analysis. The present reanalysis was based on the hypothesis that a spurious measurement error caused by situational demand was responsible. This means, people distorted their answers. Furthermore it was hypothesized that this situational demand was felt due to a person’s military rank but not due to his intelligence. Using a multigroup structural equation model our hypothesis could be confirmed. Moreover, the results indicate that an uncorrelated trait model might represent personalities better when situational demand is partialized. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.