Personality and health satisfaction

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

February 15, 2015

Summary:

Highlights• We test whether personality helps explain individual heterogeneity in how people cope with illness.• Illness exerts a strong negative effect on individuals' health satisfaction.• The strength of this effect differs by gender, personality and the presence of multiple physical illnesses.• Women
with high levels of agreeableness or low levels of conscientiousness
are less adversely affected by the incidence of mental illness than typical women.• We found no evidence that personality impacts how men cope with illness.AbstractIn
this paper we explore how personality and gender influence how
individuals cope with illness. Unsurprisingly, illness has a negative
effect on an individual's health satisfaction, but the strength differs
by gender, personality and the presence of multiple physical illnesses.
Men with multiple physical illnesses are more adversely affected than
those with a single physical illness; women are not. Women with high
levels of agreeableness or low levels of conscientiousness are less
adversely affected by the incidence of mental illness than typical
women. We find no evidence that personality matters for how men cope
with illness.

Published in

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 54 , p.64 -73

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2014.11.005

ISSN

22148043

Subjects

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

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