Personality change influences mortality in older men

ABSTRACT—Previous studies have indicated that high neuroticism is associated with early mortality. However, recent work suggests that people’s level of neuroticism changes over long periods of time. We hypothesized that such changes in trait neuroticism affect mortality risk. Growth-curve parameters (levels and slopes) that quan-tified the trajectories of neuroticism change over 12 years were used to predict 18-year risk of mortality among 1,663 aging men. Proportional hazards models were used to estimate mortality risk from level and slope parameters, controlling for objective and subjective health, depression, and age. Although a parallel analysis of extraversion showed no significant effects, level and slope of neurot-icism interacted in their effect on mortality. Men who had both a high average level of neuroticism and an increasing level of neuroticism over time had much lower survival thanmenwithout that combination. These findings suggest that it is not just the level of personality traits, but their direction of change, that is related to mortality. Personality traits have emerged as important predictors of all-cause mortality (Friedman, 2000; Friedman et al., 1993; Maier & Smith, 1999). Although perhaps the best known of these predictors is low conscientiousness, high neuroticism and low extraversion have also been associated with an elevated mor