Category: Personality

2 Personality Traits That Predict Happiness

Two personality traits that lead to a happier and more satisfying life.

Two personality traits that lead to a happier and more satisfying life.

Psychologists have discovered that young adults who are more outgoing and emotionally stable go on to lead happier lives.

The study looked at data from 2,529 people born in 1946.

They first answered a series of questions about their personalities at 16 and 26 years of age.

Forty years later, in their early sixties, they were asked about their well-being and satisfaction with life.

Dr Catharine Gale, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“We found that extroversion in youth had direct, positive effects on wellbeing and life satisfaction in later life.

Neuroticism, in contrast, had a negative impact, largely because it tends to make people more susceptible to feelings of anxiety and depression and to physical health problems.”

High extroversion is linked to being more sociable, having more energy and preferring to stay active.

High neuroticism is linked to being distractible, moody and having low emotional stability.

Increased extroversion was directly linked to more happiness.

Greater neuroticism, meanwhile, was linked to less happiness through a greater susceptibility to psychological distress.

Dr Gale said:

“Understanding what determines how happy people feel in later life is of particular interest because there is good evidence that happier people tend to live longer.

In this study we found that levels of neuroticism and extroversion measured over 40 years earlier were strongly predictive of well-being and life satisfaction in older men and women.

Personality in youth appears to have an enduring influence on happiness decades later.”

Related

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Gale et al., 2013).

The Personality Trait That Fuels Sexual Fantasies (M)

People high in this personality trait report more sexual fantasies across multiple domains.

People high in this personality trait report more sexual fantasies across multiple domains.

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People Who Enjoy Bitter Flavours Share This Personality Trait

What liking certain foods and drinks reveals about your personality.

What liking certain foods and drinks reveals about your personality.

Risk-takers and sensation-seekers prefer bitter drinks, such as bitter beer, research finds.

Pale ales, which are generally more bitter than lagers, are preferred by thrill-seekers.

Other bitter drinks, such as strong coffee along with spicy foods, are particularly attractive to sensation-seekers.

Sensation-seeking is an aspect of extraversion, suggesting that those who like bitter drinks are more extraverted.

In contrast, people who avoid bitter tastes, tend to have more agreeable personalities, previous research has found.

Dr John Hayes, study co-author, said:

“Traditionally, most researchers find that people who experience bitterness more intensely avoid bitter food or drink—so with heightened bitterness, they like it less, and therefore consume it less.

But here, we find that people who seek higher sensations and are more risk-taking, they like bitter beer such as India pale ales, if they also have greater bitter taste perception.”

For the study, 109 people rated their liking of two pale ales and a lager.

The results revealed that those with sensation-seeking personalities preferred the more bitter beer.

Ms Molly Higgins, the study’s first author, said:

“Our data contradict the classic view that bitterness is merely an aversive sensation that limits intake.

We found that increased bitterness perception does not always lead to decreased liking and intake—rather, it’s a positive attribute in some products for some consumers.”

Disliking bitter foods can be bad for health, said Ms Higgins:

“Avoidance of bitter foods can impact health negatively, because bitter foods such as cruciferous vegetables, green tea and grapefruit contain healthy compounds like flavonols, which are reported to have antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties.”

Narcissists and psychopaths?

On the other hand, having a preference for bitter tastes is linked to psychopathy, narcissism and everyday sadism, some studies have found.

A predilection for bitter foods and drinks, therefore, could indicated some psychopathic tendencies in a person’s personality.

The study was published in the Food Quality and Preference (Higgins et al., 2020).

2 Personality Traits That Indicate High IQ

The personality traits that suggest you have higher intelligence.

The personality traits that suggest you have higher intelligence.

The personality traits of being open to experience and having stable emotions both indicate a higher IQ, research finds.

People who are open to experience are more interested in things that are complex, new and unconventional.

Emotional stability is linked to being better at dealing with stress and minor frustrations.

People who are emotionally stable usually find it easier to control their urges and are mostly unselfconscious.

Both stable emotions and being open to experience are linked to better general knowledge, which are two aspect of intelligence.

Psychologists call general knowledge ‘crystallised intelligence’ is one of the two main types of intelligence.

Crystallised intelligence becomes more important as people get older as acquired information and skills predict their success in life.

The other type is called ‘fluid intelligence’, and refers to abstract reasoning and the speed at which the brain works.

The study included 201 university students in the UK who were given tests of personality and general knowledge questions, including:

  • Who wrote Anna Karenina?
  • Who discovered penicillin?
  • Which Beatle was shot in New York?

(See the end of the article for the answers.)

The results showed that people got more answers correct if their personalities were more emotionally stable and they were more open to experience.

Openness to experience is particularly important for general knowledge because it makes people more curious and motivates them to learn new things.

Another personality trait the researchers found was linked to greater general knowledge was introversion.

Signs of introversion include preferring to be in a quiet, relaxing environment and having a rich mental life.

Having a rich mental life likely encourages people with this personality trait to pick up more information about the world.

(The answers are: Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Fleming and John Lennon, respectively.)

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2006).

2 Personality Traits Linked To Chronic Anxiety

The two personality traits can interact with each other to produce chronic anxiety problems.

The two personality traits can interact with each other to produce chronic anxiety problems.

People who are both neurotic and introverted are more likely to experience anxiety problems, research finds.

Signs of introversion include preferring to be in a quiet, relaxing environment and having a rich mental life.

Neurotic people have a tendency towards sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.

The two personality traits can interact with each other to produce chronic anxiety problems.

It may be because people who are both introverted and neurotic tend to pay more attention to things going wrong, rather than to potential rewards.

Over the years, focusing on problems rather than rewards may condition people with these personality traits to experience more anxiety.

This is hardly surprising if all a person sees is problems everywhere.

Another contributing problem could be that introverted and neurotic people are less likely to get help from others, the study’s authors write:

“…perhaps an introverted neurotic person is prone to experiencing greater anxiety because of a lack of social support to aid in the amelioration of such anxiety (an introverted person may not seek much interaction with others).

Thus, an introverted person may not have the coping strategy of seeking social support as an option, which then maintains and potentially exacerbates anxiety…”

The conclusions come from a study of 466 young adults who were assessed twice over three years.

The results showed that those who were both neurotic and introverted were more likely to be experiencing high levels of anxiety issues three years later.

The study’s authors write:

“Low extraversion and high neuroticism relate to greater susceptibility to negative affect, less susceptibility to signals of reward, greater susceptibility to signals of punishment, and higher vulnerability to arousal and anxiety.”

On their own, being neurotic or introverted may not cause a major anxiety problem.

For example, people who are highly neurotic, but also outgoing and extraverted, may be protected from anxiety, the authors write:

“Even if an individual is highly neurotic, this same individual with high extraversion would more likely also be sensitive to signals of reward, which may offset or mask feelings of extreme anxiety.”

People who are just introverted, but with a stable personality (non-neurotic), were no more likely to be anxious, the study found:

“…even if an individual is highly introverted, this same individual with low neuroticism and low emotional reactivity would be less likely to react to signals of punishment with negative affect such as anxiety.”

The study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (Gershuny & Sher, 1998).

The Personality Trait That Lowers Dementia Risk

The trait may encourage people to keep their mind active, which is a protective factor against dementia.

The trait may encourage people to keep their mind active, which is a protective factor against dementia.

People who are open to experience have a lower risk of developing dementia.

This personality trait, one of the five major aspects of personality, is linked to being more imaginative, sensitive to feelings, intellectually curious and seeking variety.

Openness may encourage people to keep their mind active, which a protective factor against dementia.

People who are more open also tend to have higher levels of education, which also reduces dementia risk.

The second personality trait linked to dementia in the study was neuroticism.

However, not all traits are protective: being neurotic increased the risk of developing dementia by 6 percent, the researchers found.

The major personality trait of neuroticism involves a tendency towards worry and moodiness.

People who are neurotic are more likely to experience negative emotions like depression, anxiety, guilt and envy.

Other studies have found that being neurotic may double the risk of developing dementia later in life.

Neurotic people are particularly sensitive to chronic stress.

Personality, though, is not destiny, when it comes to dementia — good brain health is about nature and nurture.

Many factors reduce dementia risk, such as a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating properly and getting enough exercise.

Indeed, making four out of five critical lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 percent.

Keeping the mind active is thought to reduce dementia risk.

Learning new activities, travelling and deepening social relationships may all be beneficial.

The present study included 524 people who were given tests of personality and symptoms of pre-dementia.

Ms Emmeline Ayers, the study’s first author, explained:

“While more studies are needed, our results provide evidence that personality traits play an independent role in the risk for or protection against specific pre-dementia syndromes.

From a clinical perspective, these findings emphasize the importance of accounting for aspects of personality when assessing for dementia risk.”

Related

The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Ayers et al., 2020).

2 Personality Traits Linked To Negative Thoughts

The best strategy for getting rid of negative thoughts.

The best strategy for getting rid of negative thoughts.

People high in neuroticism are more likely to experience negative thoughts.

In addition, being introverted is linked to spontaneously remembering more negative life events.

Together, both personality traits — neuroticism and introversion — are linked to depression and anxiety.

On the other hand, people with stable emotions who are more extraverted are at lower risk of depression and anxiety.

Neuroticism and introversion are two of the ‘Big Five’ personality traits, which also include agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience.

The study included 71 people who were given personality tests and asked to recall some personal memories.

Dr Florin Dolcos, study co-author, explained:

“We’re looking at traits that are associated with the way that people process the emotional world and the way that they respond to it.

We wanted to look not only at how personality traits might influence what and how people remember, but also to examine how that impacts their (subsequent) emotional state.”

The results showed that both men and women who were more introverted tended to recall more negative memories.

Neurotic women had a tendency to repeatedly return to the same memories, the study revealed.

Psychologists call this rumination.

Dr Dolcos explained:

“Depressed people recollect those negative memories and as a result they feel sad.

And as a result of feeling sad, the tendency is to have more negative memories recollected.

It’s a kind of a vicious circle.”

Neurotic men, though, recalled a higher proportion of negative memories.

Getting rid of negative thoughts

To get rid of negative thoughts, people use a variety of strategies.

For women, trying to suppress negative thoughts did not work, as they returned stronger than before.

(See: the problem with thought suppression.)

Men who made an effort to think differently about their memories — what psychologists call ‘reappraisal’ — recalled more positive memories.

Suppression was not linked to any differences for men.

One of the best ways of getting rid of negative thoughts is using flexible emotional control strategies.

Related

The study was published in the journal Emotion (Denkova et al., 2012).

These Two Personality Traits Could Add Years to Your Life (M)

One trait reliably increased the risk of early death, while two others appeared protective.

One trait reliably increased the risk of early death, while two others appeared protective.

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The Personality Type That Is Easiest To Read At First Glance

The study tested how good we are at assessing a stranger’s personality in a few minutes.

The study tested how good we are at assessing a stranger’s personality in a few minutes.

The personalities of happy, confident people are particularly easy to read at first glance.

It may be because happier people are more likely to project their true personalities.

However, even the personalities of those lower in well-being are relatively easy to read, the research revealed.

The study tested the ability to assess other people’s personalities when speed dating.

It emerged that most can make reasonably accurate judgements about major aspects of personality, such as how open, extraverted and agreeable another person is.

However, some people are much easier to read than others, said Ms Lauren Gazzard Kerr, the study’s first author:

“Some people are open books whose distinctive personalities can be accurately perceived after a brief interaction, whereas others are harder to read.

Strikingly, people who report higher well-being, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life tend to make the task easier.”

The study used a speed dating format in which 372 people met for the first time for only a few minutes.

Afterwards, they were each asked to rate the personality of the person they had met.

The results revealed that the impressions they formed were generally accurate.

However, people were worse at judging the personalities of potential romantic partners than strangers in whom they had no romantic interest.

Perhaps nerves were getting in the way.

One thing emerged strongly: the personalities of happier people are easier to read at first glance.

Dr Lauren Human, study co-author, said:

“Perhaps people that have greater well-being behave in ways that are more in line with their personality — being more authentic or true to themselves.”

Alternatively, it may be that some people tend to be happier because their personalities are perceived more accurately by those they meet.

The researchers next want to find out why some people’s personalities are easier to read, explained Dr Human:

“Understanding why some people are able to be seen more accurately could help us determine strategies that other people could apply to enhance how accurately they are perceived.”

Related

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Kerr et al., 2020).

This Personality Type Is Most Likely To Cheat

While men are guided by their personality, women’s loyalty is tied directly to the health of the bond.

While men are guided by their personality, women’s loyalty is tied directly to the health of the bond.

Men with performance anxiety who like to take risks are most likely to cheat.

Women, though, tend to cheat if they are dissatisfied with their relationship.

The standard of a man’s relationship does not have much effect on whether he cheats; instead, it is his personality that matters.

The study supports the stereotype that men who are cheaters will continue to cheat, whatever kind of partnership they are in.

Risk-takers tend to be impulsive and can have problems controlling themselves.

Gambling, drug-taking and aggressive behaviour can all be signs of someone who is a risk-taker.

Cheating is one more way for this type of man to find excitement.

The pattern is different among women, where unhappiness in their current relationship predicts cheating.

In fact, women who are dissatisfied with their relationship are twice as likely to cheat on their partner as those who are satisfied.

One-in-five are unfaithful

The study included almost one thousand men and women in (supposedly) monogamous relationships.

The results showed that 23 percent of men and 19 percent of women admitted being unfaithful at some point.

Men’s infidelity was predicted by personality factors like risk-taking.

Professor Milhausen, who led the study, said:

“All kinds of things predict infidelity.

What this study says is that when you put all of those things together, for men, personality characteristics are so strong they bounce everything else out of the model.

For women, in the face of all other variables, it’s still the relationship that is the most important predictor.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior (Mark et al., 2011).

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