Is Your Personality Killing You?

Certainly, our personality can have an impact on our well-being. But here’s some good news: If you’re aware of how certain traits help you and others hold you back, you can make some strategic changes, says Sara Weston, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. 

More good news: Weston’s not talking about a wholesale personality makeover. A more immediate and targeted approach is to address the implications of your personality that may be affecting your health. She suggests you target your top health priorities and which behaviors need adjusting. Then take small steps that play to your personality strengths and make up for your weaknesses.

Conscientious vs. careless: the benefits of being uptight

Let’s start with one of my own personality strengths. There’s solid, consistent research that says people who are higher on the conscientiousness scale — responsible, organized and productive — tend to have better health outcomes, including a lower risk of dementia and heart disease, and longer lives, says Emily Willroth, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

That’s in large part because they’re attentive to their own health, Weston says. She refers to two buckets: “Doing things you should, and not doing things you shouldn’t.” The conscientious (haters might call us “uptight”) are more likely to eat healthy foods and get regular exercise, and less likely to smoke and drink to excess, she says.  They’re also more likely to use preventative health care, according to Willroth, and address health problems, such as high blood pressure, sooner. 

So, what can those of us who lean more toward careless than conscientious do? Think about how you can make things easier for yourself in the health care arena. If you’re terrible at scheduling wellness visits or screening tests, for example, make your next appointment before you leave the last one, and sign up for reminder texts from your providers. If you have medications you forget to take, get a 7-day pill organizer. If your doctor’s advice to join a gym lands with a thud, think about whether there’s a form of physical activity that feels less like a duty and more like fun.

Neuroticism vs. emotional stability: the negatives of negativity

Neuroticism — my big bugaboo — is the other trait for which there is consistent evidence that tilting toward emotional instability or negative emotions, including irritability and anxiety, is tied to worse health. When stressful events happen, neurotic people “don’t handle them coolly and calmly,” says psychologist Daniel K. Mroczek, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University and an author of the 2017 analysis of personality and mortality as well as the 2024 dementia study.  

When you have an over-the-top or consistently negative response to daily stress, your body can release inflammatory chemicals. And when that happens repeatedly over time, it can damage the body in a variety of ways, Mroczek explains. The relationship between personality and health can go both ways. For example, worse health can contribute to a more negative response to the next stressful life event, which continues the cycle.

How to break that feedback loop? Mroczek suggests that folks who lean neurotic focus on how they handle stress. Try things like meditation or exercise. Both are shown to combat the negative effects the stress response has on the body. It’s never too late to work on this, Mroczek adds.

Traits with mixed connections to health

Other personality traits have pros and cons when it comes to health. People who are more agreeable and extroverted seem to have a reduced risk of early death, but the effects are smaller than for conscientiousness and neuroticism. 

This may be because the traits are associated with a mixed bag of effects. We agreeable, don’t-rock-the-boat types may have more friends and social ties (good for health), but we might not push for answers during interactions with the health care system (potentially bad), Weston says.  If you go along to get along so much that you avoid pressing a doctor who dismisses your concerns, bring a friend or family member to advocate for you. Regardless of personality, that’s good advice. 

And when someone has a strong social support network, as extroverts tend to do, they can handle stress better, which may explain why being extroverted is associated with a lower mortality risk, says Weston. But outgoing, sociable people may also engage in behaviors that negatively affect their health, such as drinking alcohol to excess or doing things that disrupt their sleep. The researchers who did the review on sleep and personality traits recommended that extroverts mute their social media notifications 1 to 2 hours before bedtime to give themselves plenty of time to unwind.

Meanwhile, openness to experiences, which includes intellectual curiosity and exploring new cultural or artistic experiences, doesn’t appear to have a big impact on health.

The best thing to do, the researchers say, is to play to your strengths. If you want to up your physical activity and are an extrovert, try a group fitness class or biking group. An introvert might prefer running solo or taking online fitness classes.  

I’ve noticed that since I returned to regular weight lifting and stationary biking, keeping a gratitude journal and using a really good meditation app, the inevitable unpleasant moments during my day are much easier to handle, and my middle-of-the-night worry sessions happen less frequently. I also find that despite my natural tendency to hibernate at home with a good book, I feel better when I join friends regularly for a dog walk, coffee or dinner.

I may never be naturally chill or the life of the party, but by making some small changes, I do feel a whole lot better, which has to be better for my health.