Category: Personality

People were asked how they generally coped with stress and were given a blood test for markers of bodily inflammation.

People who express their emotions more freely tend to have a stronger immune system, research finds.

In contrast, avoiding expressing the emotions is linked to more inflammation in the body, suggesting the immune system is not working as well.

Other studies have shown that loneliness, poor sleep and stress can also damage the functioning of the immune system.

The current research was conducted in the context of bereavement, explained Dr Christopher Fagundes, study co-author:

“There has been work focused on the link between emotion regulation and health after romantic breakups, which shows that distracting oneself from thoughts of the loss may be helpful.

However, the death of a spouse is a very different experience because neither person initiated the separation or can attempt to repair the relationship.”

The study included almost 100 people who had all recently lost a spouse.

They were asked how they generally coped psychologically with stress and were given a blood test for markers of bodily inflammation.

Dr Fagundes said:

“Bodily inflammation is linked to a host of negative health conditions, including serious cardiovascular issues like stroke and heart attack.”

The results showed that people who habitually bottle up their emotions tend to have greater signs of bodily inflammation, suggesting their immune systems are not functioning as well.

Dr Fagundes said:

“These findings really highlight the importance of acknowledging one’s emotions after the death of a spouse rather than bottling them up.”

The research shows the importance of expressing emotions both for mental health and the immune system.

Dr Richard Lopez, the study’s first author, said:

“The research also suggests that not all coping strategies are created equal, and that some strategies can backfire and have harmful effects, especially in populations experiencing particularly intense emotions in the face of significant life stressors, such as losing a loved one.”

The study was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine (Lopez et al., 2020).

Embarrassment, it seems, is nothing to be embarrassed about.

People who are easily embarrassed are seen as more trustworthy, research finds.

Not only that, but people who are easily embarrassed report higher levels of monogamy.

So, embarrassment can also be a sign of fidelity.

Dr Robb Willer, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Embarrassment is one emotional signature of a person to whom you can entrust valuable resources.

It’s part of the social glue that fosters trust and cooperation in everyday life.”

Embarrassment, it seems, is nothing to be embarrassed about.

Dr Matthew Feinberg, the study’s first author, said:

“Moderate levels of embarrassment are signs of virtue.

Our data suggests embarrassment is a good thing, not something you should fight.”

Of course, we are talking about normal levels of embarrassment, not the crippling problems that can affect people experiencing social anxiety disorder.

The typical signs of embarrassment are:

• looking down,
• while covering part of the face with the hand,
• and grimacing or smirking.

Those experiencing shame, in comparison, typically cover their whole face.

Embarrassing moments

For the research 60 people were videotaped talking about embarrassing moments they had experienced.

These included things like:

• public flatulence,
• thinking an overweight woman was pregnant,
• and giving money to an untidy person who was not actually panhandling.

The videos were analysed for the amount of embarrassment that people showed.

Afterwards they played a game designed to test generosity.

Again, this found a link between being easily embarrassed and being generous to others.

A final study had people judging a trained actor who acted out getting a perfect score on a test.

Some people watched a version where he was embarrassed about his success, others watched a version where he was pleased with his success.

It turned out that people trusted him more if he acted embarrassed.

Dr Feinberg said:

“You want to affiliate with them more, you feel comfortable trusting them.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Feinberg et al., 2012).

Why punishment fails to deter people with these personality traits.

Being impatient and able to tolerate risk are personality traits that are strongly linked to criminal behaviour, a study finds.

However, it is being able to tolerate risk easily that is one of the strongest personality predictors of crime.

People who are risk tolerant tend to be less worried about being caught and punished.

Other studies have frequently linked a lack of self-control, personality disorders, psychopathy and childhood physical or psychological abuse with criminal behaviour.

Professor Claus Thustrup Kreiner, study co-author, said:

“The propensity to commit crime is twice as high for the most risk-tolerant individuals compared to the least risk-tolerant.”

Along with these personality traits, people low in cognitive skills are also more likely to commit a crime.

This may be at least partly because people with low intelligence tend to be restricted to very low-paid jobs in many countries.

Taking risks linked to property crime

The conclusions come from a study of over 7,000 young Danish men who were given a variety of tests that were cross-referenced with information about their socioeconomic conditions and any criminal record.

Professor Kreiner said:

“We have chosen to focus on crime among young men aged 15-20 because it is a group where a lot of crime is committed compared with other men and women in general.”

The results showed that different traits predicted different crimes, said Professor Kreiner:

“If we look at different types of crime, willingness to take risks is particularly relevant when it comes to predicting property offenses, such as theft.

If we are talking about violent, drug or sexual offences, problems with self-control are common among the individuals.”

Why punishment fails to deter crime

The irony of the study is that it shows that the kinds of people who are most likely to commit crimes are also the least likely to be worried about being caught or going to prison.

The criminal justice system supposedly relies partly on its deterrent effect, which is much weaker for the typical criminal.

Professor Kreiner said:

“Our study may be able to help explain why there is limited empirical evidence that increasing punishment works to reduce crime.”

Crime prevention should focus on changing these traits, Professor Kreiner said:

“Our study clearly shows that preferences such as risk tolerance, impatience and altruism predict the propensity to commit crime.

Other research suggests that it is possible to influence these behavioral parameters in children and young people, which can be very important in relation to the development of criminal behavior.”

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Epper et al., 2022).

One trait can help protect you from anxiety and depression.

People with stable emotions are at a lower risk of developing anxiety and depression, research finds.

Emotional stability is linked to being better at dealing with stress and minor frustrations.

People who are emotionally stable usually find it easier to control their urges and are mostly unselfconscious.

On top of this, people with stable emotions tend to live longer, perhaps because it leads to a healthier lifestyle.

In contrast, being neurotic — the opposite of emotional stability — is linked to less happiness in life.

Unfortunately, the personality trait can lead to a shorter lifespan.

Part of the reason may be that worriers tend to self-medicate with alcohol, cigarettes and other unhealthy habits.

The conclusions come from a study of 1,788 men who were followed over 30 years.

The results showed that neurotic people were more likely to smoke and this was linked to higher mortality.

Professor Daniel K. Mroczek, the study’s first author, said:

“Research shows that higher levels of neuroticism can lead to earlier mortality, and we wanted to know why.

We found that having worrying tendencies or being the kind of person who stresses easily is likely to lead to bad behaviors like smoking and, therefore, raise the mortality rate.

This work is a reminder that high levels of some personality traits can be hazardous to one’s physical health.”

Reducing neuroticism

It is possible to change a neurotic personality, though, the results of 207 separate studies have found.

People become significantly less neurotic after undergoing therapy.

After only three months of treatment, people’s emotional stability had improved by half as much as it would over their entire adulthood.

After having psychotherapy and/or taking medication, people were also slightly more extraverted.

Both reduced neuroticism and increased extraversion were maintained in the long-term.

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Mroczek et al., 2009).

They died an average of two years earlier.

People who are very pessimistic about the future are at a greater risk of dying earlier, a study finds.

Pessimists, the study found, died an average of two years earlier than their less pessimistic peers.

Highly pessimistic people, though, make up less than 10 percent of the population.

Dr John Whitfield, the study’s first author, said:

“We found people who were strongly pessimistic about the future were more likely to die earlier from cardiovascular diseases and other causes of death, but not from cancer.

Optimism scores on the other hand did not show a significant relationship with death, either positive or negative.

Less than nine percent of respondents identified as being strongly pessimistic.

There were no significant differences in optimism or pessimism between men and women.

On average, an individual’s level of either optimism or pessimism increased with age.

We also found depression did not appear to account for the association between pessimism and mortality.”

The study included almost 3,000 people who completed tests of optimism and pessimism.

Dr Whitfield believes that optimism and pessimism are not direct opposites:

“The key feature of our results is that we used two separate scales to measure pessimism and optimism and their association with all causes of death.

That is how we discovered that while strong pessimism was linked with earlier death, those who scored highly on the optimism scale did not have a greater than average life expectancy.

We think it’s unlikely that the disease caused the pessimism because we did not find that people who died from cancer had registered a strong pessimism score in their tests.

If illness was leading to higher pessimism scores, it should have applied to cancers as well as to cardiovascular disease.”

It may be beneficial to the health of the highly pessimistic to learn to change their personality, said Dr Whitfield:

“Understanding that our long term health can be influenced by whether we’re a cup-half-full or cup-half-empty kind of person might be the prompt we need to try to change the way we face the world, and try to reduce negativity, even in really difficult circumstances.”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Whitfield et al., 2020).

Choosing solitude can be a sign of self-acceptance and personal growth.

Both extraverts and introverts need solitude to recharge — although introverts prefer to have more alone time, psychologists find.

Wanting to be alone is not necessarily a red flag for depression or isolation, the research concludes.

In fact, choosing solitude can be a sign of self-acceptance and personal growth.

Periods of solitude can provide spiritual renewal, critical self-reflection and even a chance for creative expression.

Professor Margarita Azmitia, study co-author, said:

“Solitude has gotten a lot of bad press, especially for adolescents who get labeled as social misfits or lonely.

Sometimes, solitude is good.

Developmentally, learning to be alone is a skill, and it can be refreshing and restorative.”

Wanting to be alone is not necessarily about shyness or loneliness, Professor Azmitia said:

“There’s a stigma for kids who spend time alone.

They’re considered lacking in social skills, or they get labeled ‘loners’.

It’s beneficial to know when you need to be alone and when you need to be with others.

This study quantifies the benefits of solitude and distinguishes it from the costs of loneliness or isolation.”

The conclusions come from a study of 979 young people who completed a survey about solitude.

The results showed that those who sought solitude because they felt rejected were at a higher risk of depression and anxiety.

However, those who sought solitude for positive reasons did not face any of these risks.

Dr Virginia Thomas, the study’s first author, said:

“These results increase our awareness that being alone can be restorative and a positive thing.

The question is how to be alone without feeling like we’re missing out.

For many people, solitude is like exercising a muscle they’ve never used.

You have to develop it, flex it, and learn to use time alone to your benefit.”

Dr Thomas said both introverts and extraverts need solitude:

“Introverts just need more of it.

Our culture is pretty biased toward extroversion.

When we see any sign of shyness or introversion in children, we worry they won’t be popular.

But we overlook plenty of well-adjusted teens and young adults who are perfectly happy when alone, and who benefit from their solitude.”

The study was published in the Journal of Adolescence (Thomas et al., 2019).