Arkansas Online

HOW HEALTHY IS YOUR PERSONALITY?

Asking yourself a few questions can help you better understand the tendencies that support or sabotage your health.

BY PAULA SPENCER SCOTT

Our personalities influence more than whether we like parties or try to avoid arguments. Personality can affect our well-being. “There’s no such thing as a disease-specific, cancer-prone personality or a coronary-prone personality, “says psychology researcher Howard Friedman, PhD. But some people have a healthy or “self-healing” personality, made up of characteristics that lead them to healthy behaviors and better resistance to stressors, he says. Others, not so much. Read on to check your own personality quirks and find out how they might influence your health.

ARE YOU A RULE FOLLOWER OR A REBEL?

If you are a fan of rules you are displaying conscientiousness. It means being dependable, responsible, organized, persistent and able to delay reward. It’s the trait most linked to good health outcomes.

“Being persistent is much healthier than being impetuous or carefree,” Friedman says. “Conscientious individuals do more things to protect their health [like going to the doctor or finishing medicine] and avoid risky activities like smoking, substance abuse or driving without a seatbelt. They also find their way to happier marriages, better friendships and healthier jobs.” No surprise, they live longer, too, according to data in a famous eightdecade study of 1,500 Americans known as The Longevity Project.

One reason for the longevity may be that committing to a health or fit

ness plan can be easier if you’re high in “planfulness”— that’s a sub-trait of conscientiousness that makes you likely to target and then tackle goals. Planful people, according to University of Oregon researchers who tested students’ gym-going behaviors, say things like, “I develop a clear plan when I have a goal that is important to me.”

During COVID’s first year, researchers discovered that conscientious people were also most likely to socially distance and practice behaviors that boost hygiene, like washing hands often, disinfecting and avoiding touching the face, according to Pavel Blagov, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Whitman College.

Being conscientious doesn’t always make for corona-heroes, though. People high in this trait are also the ones who were stockpiling toilet paper early in the pandemic, according to a European study.

HOW AGREEABLE ARE YOU?

In a 2020 study conducted during the pandemic, Blagov found that those who follow public-health messages best also score high in agreeableness (going along with what others say, being honest and easy to get along with, trusting and caring for others). Those on the other end of the agreeableness spectrum—they score high in meanness (caring less about others) and disinhibition (poor impulse control)—were less likely to follow coronavirus-prevention advice. Only a small percent of the population is like this, Blagov says—but since they’re the ones more apt to purposely sneeze on others or go to parties if they know they’re sick, they can spread a lot of virus.

“Personality is just part of the picture,” Blagov stresses. “If I’m high in conscientiousness and agreeableness, I might still forget to wash my hands. But in the long term, I’m more likely to do the right things over time and therefore more likely to be healthier and better for the community.”

ARE YOU CAUTIOUS OR CURIOUS?

How open you are to new experiences also can have an impact on your health. For example, in a twist from what you'd expect, a Swiss team reported in 2020 that among 65-year-olds they tracked, those with the least shrinkage in brain volume in the areas that help predict memory loss and Alzheimer’s were relatively low in agreeableness but were naturally curious and non-conformists.

ARE YOU A LONER OR SOCIAL BUTTERFLY?

Lots of social ties means lots more varied micro-organisms in your gut, and that’s a marker of good health. Showing for the first time a link between personality traits and the gut microbiome, Oxford’s Katerina Johnson also found that those high in stress and anxiety have less-diverse flora. This sort of research could lead to prebiotic or probiotic treatments for anxiety or depression, Johnson says.

Genes shape about 20 to 60 percent of personality; the rest comes from experiences and choices. While personalities often stay about the same through life, they tend to evolve with maturity. From around 25 to middle age, for example, most people become less anxious and more self-controlled, Friedman says. After 60, some become less social and more anxious.

Changing your nature can be tough— but doable if you’re motivated and believe you can, experts say.

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2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/285155772557872

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