People who are more likely to die care less about the future: Life insurance risk ratings predict personality

Abstract

Adaptationist models predict that individuals at higher risk of death will be calibrated to prioritize immediate over future benefits. However, operationalizing individual mortality risk in empirical studies has proven challenging. We introduce and explore a novel method of operationalizing individual mortality risk: Using the risk ratings assigned by actuaries to purchasers of individual life insurance policies. Participants, who had recently gone through underwriting as part of the insurance application process, completed self-report instruments to assess personality traits related to present-future tradeoffs and a putative fast-slow continuum of life history strategy. Study 1 (n = 270) found that insurance-based mortality risk associated negatively with a measure of slow life strategy and positively with a measure of short-term mating orientation. Study 2 (n = 402), which was preregistered, found that insurance-based mortality risk associated positively with impulsivity and negatively with conscientiousness and consideration of future consequences. Self-estimated mortality risk did not track insurance-based mortality risk, but was independently correlated with the same personality traits. We discuss the potential of insurance-based mortality risk estimates in behavioral research and the significance of these findings for adaptationist models of individual differences.