The Big Five is one of the most widely used personality models consisting of personality traits including Neuroticism (i.e., experiencing negative emotions), Agreeableness (i.e., being polite and cooperative), Openness (i.e., being open to new experiences), Conscientiousness (i.e., being orderly and task-focused), and Extraversion (i.e., being sociable and assertive). These personality measures were included in Wave 3 of Understanding Society.
As part of their survey, young adults in Understanding Society are asked about their drinking behaviour, in particular whether they have been drunk in the last four weeks and if they have, how often. Researcher Weixi Kang from Imperial College London used both these pieces of information to explore associations between personality traits and drinking behaviour. The research took into account the number of close friends a person reported, whether they were experiencing psychological distress, and other substance use, as these things can also impact on drinking behaviour.
The findings show that Extraversion, positively related to the frequency of alcohol consumption in both male and female drinkers. This could be because people who are extraverted are also likely to be more sociable and assertive, therefore more likely to be in social situations where alcohol intoxication is more common.
This research found that the only personality trait that had a negative association with alcohol consumption was Conscientiousness. Those who scored highly for this trait were less likely to get drunk, particularly if they were young women.
Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Openness did not appear to impact on drinking behaviour in this study, possibly because the research focused on the frequency of young people getting drunk, rather than whether they ever drink.
Read the research paper: Understanding the associations between personality traits and the frequency of alcohol intoxication in young males and females: Findings from the United Kingdom
Health and wellbeingYoung people
