How What You Eat Reveals Your Personality

Can your personality affect your eating habits and healthy lifestyle choices? These were the main questions of a study conducted by Ioannis Tsartsapakis and Aglaia Zafeiroudi of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Thessaly, respectively, in Greece.

More specifically, the researchers were interested in how the Big Five Personality Traits, a widely accepted model believed to encompass basic dimensions of personality, influenced food consumption and healthy eating habits. The five traits are: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

To investigate the influence of the Big Five on eating, the research team performed a literature review of studies that focused on the role of these personality factors in dietary habits and preferences. Their effort yielded a whopping 2237 relevant articles, but in the final tally, just 21 studies met the inclusion criteria. From there, they analyzed the findings.

The results were striking. Tsartsapakis and Zafeiroudi found that each of the Big Five traits was associated with dietary preferences and habits. Their findings are summarized below:

• Conscientiousness involves self-control, setting goals, planning ahead, and sticking to rules. People high in conscientiousness are more likely to make healthier food choices, maintain a healthy body weight through good eating habits, and stick to overall healthy behaviors.
• Openness to experience refers to curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness. People high in openness enjoy new experiences, appreciate art, and are in touch with their feelings. By contrast, people low in openness prefer established routines and beliefs — and may be regarded as close-minded or conventional. People high in openness demonstrate healthier habits, like eating more fruits and vegetables and following a balanced diet, particularly as they get older. Open individuals were also less likely to suffer from "food neophobia," or the avoidance or fear of eating new foods.
• Agreeableness captures how a person interacts with others and their general attitude toward people. Individuals high on this trait are open to others, altruistic, trusting, and compassionate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this trait was linked to low meat consumption.
• Extraversion refers to how people interact with others and how much they enjoy socializing. It also relates to how positive, energetic, and lively someone feels across different social contexts. People high in this trait are typically social, talkative, and energetic. They thrive in social settings, seek fun, and are optimistic. Moreover, they enjoy adventurous activities, including dangerous sports. Extraversion was linked to the consumption of sweet and salty foods, meat, and soda. People high in extraversion often make unhealthy food choices, the investigators say, because they believe they're in good health — and are more likely to engage in risky behaviors.
• Neuroticism speaks to how a person handles emotions and how stable they feel. People high in neuroticism tend to experience more negative emotions, emotional instability, hypochondriasis, and stress. They may also struggle with feelings of inadequacy, nervousness, and anxiety. People high in this trait demonstrated unhealthy eating habits, including lower fruit and vegetable intake, and high sugar and saturated fat consumption.

Nearly 200 years ago, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote in his book The Physiology of Taste: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” The findings of this modern-day study suggest that he was right.