ArticlePsychological medicine2019
Cigarette smoking and personality: interrogating causality using Mendelian randomisation.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Using Mendelian randomization analysis to better understand the relationship between mental health and substance use: a systematic review.Psychological medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Genetic Basis of Tobacco Use Disorder.Genes · 2026Review
- Limited penetrance of dominantly inherited AIRE variants in a population-based cohort.Human molecular genetics · 2026Article
- Polygenic overlap of substance use behaviors and disorders with externalizing and internalizing problems independent of genetic correlations.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- The association between smoking and family health with the mediation role of personality among Chinese people: nationwide cross-sectional study.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Hit me with your best puff: Personality predicts preference for cigar vs. cigarette smoking.PloS one · 2024Article
- Association between personality traits and smoking cessation among Chinese adults.BMC psychology · 2023Article
- Conceptual and methodological issues in the study of the personality-and-culture relationship.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- [Relation of smoking status to family health and personality traits in residents aged over 18 years in China].Beijing da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Peking University. Health sciences · 2022Article
- A review of Mendelian randomization in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2022Review
- Associations between the Willingness to Donate Samples to Biobanks and Selected Psychological Variables.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Longitudinal association between personality traits and homebound status in older adults: results from the National Health and Aging Trends Study.BMC geriatrics · 2022Article
- Effects of Smoking on Aggression, Big Five Personality Factors, and Polymorphisms in HTR2A, DRD4, and MAOA among Egypt University Students.Journal of smoking cessation · 2022Article
- Genetic risks, adolescent health, and schooling attainment.Health economics · 2021Article
- Genetics of substance use disorders in the era of big data.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2021Review
- Neuroticism, Smoking, and the Risk of Parkinson's Disease.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2021Article
- Investigating causality between liability to ADHD and substance use, and liability to substance use and ADHD risk, using Mendelian randomization.Addiction biology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite the well-documented association between smoking and personality traits such as neuroticism and extraversion, little is known about the potential causal nature of these findings. If it were possible to unpick the association between personality and smoking, it may be possible to develop tailored smoking interventions that could lead to both improved uptake and efficacy.
methodsRecent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified variants robustly associated with both smoking phenotypes and personality traits. Here we use publicly available GWAS summary statistics in addition to individual-level data from UK Biobank to investigate the link between smoking and personality. We first estimate genetic overlap between traits using LD score regression and then use bidirectional Mendelian randomisation methods to unpick the nature of this relationship.
resultsWe found clear evidence of a modest genetic correlation between smoking behaviours and both neuroticism and extraversion. We found some evidence that personality traits are causally linked to certain smoking phenotypes: among current smokers each additional neuroticism risk allele was associated with smoking an additional 0.07 cigarettes per day (95% CI 0.02-0.12, p = 0.009), and each additional extraversion effect allele was associated with an elevated odds of smoking initiation (OR 1.015, 95% CI 1.01-1.02, p = 9.6 × 10-7).
conclusionWe found some evidence for specific causal pathways from personality to smoking phenotypes, and weaker evidence of an association from smoking initiation to personality. These findings could be used to inform future smoking interventions or to tailor existing schemes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.