Personality Traits and Healthy Eating Habits and Behaviors: A Narrative Review

Abstract

‘Findings from many interdisciplinary studies have revealed the important roles of nutrition in improving people’s physical mental and social health. Among other factors, personality influences the type of food consumed and consequently is predictive of health-related state. The aim of this review is to appraise the available scientific evidence regarding the effect of personality on eating habits, and whether personality traits are associated with behaviors that are conductive to a healthy lifestyle in general. A total of 2237 relevant articles were identified through a literature search, 21 of which were included in this review. Articles involving studies in only children, animal studies, studies on eating disorders, studies with specific types of diets that were clearly unrelated to health issues and studies conducted for marketing purposes were excluded. A variety studies have indicated that personality traits affect both the eating habits and types of diets chosen by individuals, including the preference for healthy or unhealthy foods. The analysis of personality traits indicated that conscientiousness is associated with healthy eating and maintaining health-promoting habits in general. Openness is positively associated with variety in food consumption and negatively associated with "food neophobia". Agreeableness is associated with low meat consumption. Extraversion is associated primarily with the consumption of sweet and salty foods, meat and soft drinks. Finally, neurotic and emotionally unstable people appear to have emotional dietary patterns, which are associated with unhealthy eating habits, such as relatively low fruit and vegetable consumption, and high sugar and saturated fat consumption. However, contradictory results have been found among studies. Interpretation of these results should be weighed against the different cultural environments in which the studies were taken place, and the extremely high heterogeneity among the instruments used to measure personality and eating habits. Future research should clarify whether personality influences eating habits in specific populations, such as individuals with eating disorders.

Received: 16 October 2023 / Accepted: 20 February 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024