The role of vigilance in the relationship between neuroticism and health: A registered report
Sara J Weston, Joshua J Jackson
*Journal of Research in Personality*
Abstract
The theory of healthy neuroticism, that neuroticism can impact health through both negative and positive pathways, often relies on descriptions of vigilance to illustrate beneficial effects. The current study is among the first to describe the relationship of neuroticism to body vigilance and test the degree to which this relationship impacts health. In an online participant panel (N = 1055), neuroticism was associated with one factor of vigilance: sensation awareness belief. This factor had a suppression effect on the relationship between neuroticism and healthy behavior, such that the effect of neuroticism through vigilance was healthy, whereas the direct effect was unhealthy. We discuss the implications of these findings and caution against using vigilance to explain the heterogeneity in neuroticism-health relationships.
Why we asked
Neuroticism is usually treated as bad for health, yet some large studies find no harm or even a benefit. The theory of healthy neuroticism explains this by saying that some neurotic people are vigilant: they notice symptoms, worry about them, and act. Picture the person who spots a change in a mole and books an appointment. Oddly enough, personality researchers almost never measure vigilance. We wanted to know whether it is related to neuroticism and whether it could explain any healthy side of the trait.
What we did
We preregistered our hypotheses and analysis plan before collecting data. An online panel of 1,055 adults completed a personality measure, several existing body-vigilance scales, and questions about their health and health behaviors. A factor analysis of the vigilance items produced two factors, which we called sensation awareness belief and change awareness belief. We then tested whether either factor helped account for the link between neuroticism and health. These data are cross-sectional and self-reported, so we describe associations and not causes.
What we found
Neuroticism was associated with sensation awareness belief (r = .37, or .28 after accounting for age and gender). It was unrelated to change awareness belief.
Sensation awareness belief showed a suppression effect on healthy behavior. In other words, the pathway from neuroticism through vigilance ran in the healthy direction (standardized indirect effect = 0.07, 95% CI [0.02, 0.14]), while the direct association of neuroticism with health behavior ran in the unhealthy direction. That fits the theory, but we are cautious. The effect was small, it was one of more than twenty we tested, and the indirect pathway through the same factor ran in the unhealthy direction for having a chronic condition.
What it means
Vigilance seems an unlikely candidate for explaining healthy neuroticism. We recommend that personality and health researchers continue to revise the theory.
The PDF here is our author preprint. The published version is available through the DOI.