A recent study suggested that obesity was correlated with high neuroticism and low conscientiousness. More specifically, there was a tendency in those with these personality tendencies to gain and lose weight in an habitually unstable manner. Impulsivity, according to the study, was the strongest predictor of obesity. Those who scored in the top 10% among those who were impulsive averaged in at 22 pounds heavier than the bottom 10 percent. Those given to impulsivity tend to lack self-control and discipline. The study went as follows:
Participants were drawn from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, an ongoing multidisciplinary study of normal aging administered by the National Institute on Aging. Subjects were generally healthy and highly educated, with an average of 16.53 years of education. The sample was 71 percent white, 22 percent black, 7 percent other ethnicity; 50 percent were women. All were assessed on what’s known as the “Big Five” personality traits — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism — as well as on 30 subcategories of these personality traits. Subjects were weighed and measured over time. This resulted in a total of 14,531 assessments across the 50 years of the study.
Researchers also found a tendency towards weight gain among those who enjoy taking risk (which is itself associated with impulsiveness), as well as among those who are cynical, aggressive or competitive. Those who were impulsive were in general more predisposed to binge eating and compulsively drinking. Those who exhibited high tendencies towards conscientiousness, however, tended to be skinnier.
