Personality Predicts Mortality Risk: An Integrative Data Analysis of 15 International Longitudinal Studies

Abstract

This study examined the Big Five personality traits as predictors of mortality risk, and smoking as a mediator of that association. Replication was built into the fabric of our design: we used a Coordinated Analysis with 15 international datasets, representing 44,094 participants. We found that high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness were consistent predictors ofmortality across studies. Smoking had a small mediating effect for neuroticism. Country and baseline age explained variation in effects: studies with older baseline age showed a pattern of protective effects (HR<1.00) for openness, and U.S. studies showed a pattern of protective effects for extraversion. This study demonstrated coordinated analysis as a powerful approach to enhance replicability andreproducibility, especially for aging-related longitudinal research.

The MMPI factor scales and risk of death in men during 45 years of follow-up: The Western Electric study.

“…It is therefore unclear to what extent these findings will generalize to more diverse samples of men and women. That said, the findings relating to cynicism in this study are mostly in agreement with studies that use more diverse samples (Graham, et al, 2017;Tindle, et al, 2009). Because it has not been examined as a mortality risk factor before, it is unclear whether the results related to inadequacy would replicate in more diverse samples.…”

“…In that study , Jokela, et al (2013) found no consistent relationship between agreeableness and mortality in just over 76,000 men and women from 7 pooled datasets who had been followed for a mean of about 6 years and whose mean age was around 51 years. The association between cynicism and all-cause mortality is, however, consistent with several studies that report that disagreeable, hostile, cynical, and antagonistic people are at greater risk of death from all causes (Almada, et al, 1991;Costa, et al, 2014;Shekelle et al, 1981;Tindle, et al, 2009;Weiss & Costa, 2005), including one that found such a relationship across 15 studies (Graham, et al, 2017). A second-order meta-analysis of the personality-health literature also affirmed the relationship between low agreeableness and poorer health outcomes, including mortality (Strickhouser, et al, 2017).…”

“…Reviews of this 83 literature and meta-analyses have identified low conscientiousness (Jokela et al, 2013;Kern 84 & Friedman, 2008;Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, & Goldberg, 2007), low agreeableness 85 (Roberts, et al, 2007), high neuroticism (Roberts, et al, 2007), low extraversion (Roberts, et al, 2007), and low openness (Ferguson & Bibby, 2011) as being associated with greater mortality. Save for the association between openness and all-cause mortality, the conclusions of these reviews and meta-analyses were supported in a recent study of 15 longitudinal datasets collected in 5 countries comprising participants from around 20 to 104 years in age with mean survival follow-up times of around 6 to 41 years (Graham et al, 2017).…”

Personality, disability‐free life years, and life expectancy: Individual participant meta‐analysis of 131,195 individuals from 10 cohort studies

“…Personality traits are related to individual differences in longevity (Graham et al, ; Jokela, Batty, et al, ). The most consistent evidence has supported low Conscientiousness as the main personality trait associated with elevated risk of premature death: one standard deviation decrease in Conscientiousness has been associated with a 14% higher mortality rate (Jokela, Batty, et al, ).…”

“…Higher mortality rate has also been associated with lower emotional stability (e.g., low liability to negative emotions and psychopathology), lower Openness to Experience (e.g., cognitive flexibility and preference for variety; Ferguson & Bibby, ), lower Extraversion (e.g., sociability and positive emotionality), and lower Agreeableness (e.g., empathy and trust in others; Graham et al, ). These traits have been weaker predictors of mortality compared to Conscientiousness, with around 5% mortality rate difference associated with one standard deviation of the trait (Graham et al, ), and their associations have been less consistent across studies than those reported for low Conscientiousness (Jokela, Batty, et al, ).…”