Relationship between emotional reactivity to visual stimuli and basic personality traits

Abstract

Two studies with the same goal, but different instruments, investigated the correlation between basic personality traits and electrodermal reactivity to aversive visual stimuli. Study 1 focused on the Five Factor Model traits, while in Study 2, we investigated the HEXACO model, and an additional trait, Disintegration. In Study 1, emotional reactivity was expressed using Polyscore, a composite polygraph measure in which electrodermal response (EDR) had the largest weight, and it was measured with respect to stimuli with positive, neutral, and negative valences. In Study 2, we employed several measures of EDR to stimuli with negative valence. In both experiments, Conscientiousness correlated positively with EDR to aversive stimuli. Additionally, in Study 2, there was a negative correlation between Disintegration and EDR to aversive stimuli. Other traits were not related to EDR to aversive stimuli, and, in Study 1, we found no relationship between personality traits and reactivity to stimuli with positive or neutral valence.