Personality and eating habits revisited: Associations between the big five, food choices, and Body Mass Index in a...

Personality traits are related to health and health-related behavior such as eating habits. However, results are inconsistent regarding exactly which traits are related to eating habits. The eating habits assessed across studies are also not easily comparable, as they are based on different food items and on different computational methods. This study investigated eating habits and their relationship to both the Big Five personality traits and Body Mass Index (BMI; an objective criterion of health status) in a representative Australian sample.

Participants were 13,892 adults from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. An analysis of 14 food items yielded three salient eating habits: consuming carbohydrate-based food (e.g., bread, pasta, snacks), meat (e.g., red meat, poultry), and plant-based food and fish (e.g., vegetables, fruits, legumes, fish).

These three eating habits showed differential associations with personality and BMI. Eating plant-based food and fish was positively associated with openness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability in hierarchical regression analyses (controlling for sociodemographic factors and other personality traits). By contrast, consuming meat was negatively associated with openness and emotional stability, and positively associated with extraversion. Consuming carbohydrate-based food was negatively associated with conscientiousness, extraversion, and emotional stability. BMI was negatively related to conscientiousness and emotional stability and positively associated with agreeableness; BMI was related to all three eating habits.

The present findings highlight the links between personality and individual health-related behavior. Implications and recommendations for the further study of individual differences in eating habits are discussed.