Personality nuances and mortality risk: A coordinated analysis of four longitudinal samples

Abstract

Objective

Personality nuances constitute the most specific level of the personality trait hierarchy and are often operationalized by individual questionnaire items. We examine whether these items are related to mortality to identify which specific personality characteristics are most related to length of life.

Method

Participants (N > 22,000) from the Health and Retirement Study, the Midlife in the United States Study, the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, and the National Health and Aging Trends Study completed 26-, 25-, 21- or 10-item measures of the Big Five personality traits using the Midlife Development Inventory. Mortality was tracked between 6 and 28 years.

Results

Across most samples and meta-analyses, higher neuroticism domain and item scores were related to a higher mortality risk, whereas higher extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness domain and item scores were associated with a lower mortality risk. Less consistent associations were found for the openness domain and items. The extraversion item “active” had the strongest association with lower mortality risk (pooled hazard ratios [HR] = 0.79, 95 %CI = 0.73–0.85), followed by “lively” (extraversion), “organized”, “responsible”, “hardworking”, and “thorough” (conscientiousness), and “helpful” (agreeableness) (HRs range from 0.87 to 0.91). These associations were partially accounted for by clinical, behavioral, and psychological factors.

Conclusion

This research deconstructs the five broad domains to identify the nuances most related to longevity. Specific personality items have replicable associations with mortality but little incremental predictive power compared to the corresponding domain. Still, the aggregated predictive value of items was stronger compared to the five broad personality domains.