Brief report: How short is too short? An ultra-brief measure of the big-five personality domains implicates "agreeableness" as a risk for all-cause mortality.
Controversy exists over the use of brief Big Five scales in health studies. We investigated links between an ultra-brief measure, the Big Five Inventory-10, and mortality in the General Social Survey. The Agreeableness scale was associated with elevated mortality risk (hazard ratio = 1.26, p = .017). This effect was attributable to the reversed-scored item "Tends to find fault with others," so that greater fault-finding predicted lower mortality risk. The Conscientiousness scale approached meta-analytic estimates, which were not precise enough for significance. Those seeking Big Five measurement in health studies should be aware that the Big Five Inventory-10 may yield unusual results.
['Chapman|Benjamin P|BP|', 'Elliot|Ari J|AJ|']
D000328:Adult D002423:Cause of Death D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D010551:Personality D010552:Personality Assessment
all-cause mortality General Social Survey BFI-10 Big Five personality traits brief scales