Identification of the healthy neurotic: Personality traits predict smoking after disease onset
Sara J. Weston, Joshua J. Jackson
*Journal of Research in Personality*
Abstract
Personality traits are known predictors of health behaviors and health status. However, most of this work focuses exclusively on how personality influences health outcomes rather than how personality influences response to disease. Using a large, national study (N = 7051), we investigated whether conscientiousness and neuroticism were associated with smoking behavior after the onset of a disease. After the onset of a major chronic disease, high levels of neuroticism predicted less smoking when paired with high levels of conscientiousness, a combination described as healthy neuroticism. Healthy neuroticism only predicted smoking behavior after the onset of disease, not before, suggesting that the relationship between personality and responses to health problems differs from the relationship between personality and the onset of health problems.
Why we asked
Most research on personality and health asks who becomes ill. We wanted to know something different: what people do once they are ill. Researchers have described a combination of high neuroticism and high conscientiousness as healthy neuroticism, on the idea that worry paired with self-discipline might lead people to protect their health. Smoking after a serious diagnosis is one place to check that idea.
What we did
We used a large national study of 7,051 people and asked whether neuroticism and conscientiousness were associated with smoking after the onset of a major chronic disease. We also looked at smoking before disease onset for comparison.
What we found
After disease onset, higher neuroticism went with less smoking among people who were also high in conscientiousness. In other words, the healthy neuroticism combination was associated with smoking less. This pattern did not appear before disease onset. That suggests personality relates to how people respond to a health problem differently than it relates to who develops one.
What it means
The pattern is associational, so it does not show that these traits lead people to quit. It does suggest that studies of healthy neuroticism should look at what happens after a health threat appears.
This summary is based on the published abstract.