ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2021
Personality pathways to mortality: Interleukin-6 links conscientiousness to mortality risk.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Personality nuances and inflammation: A coordinated analysis of six samples.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Pooled it
- Personality and mortality risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal data.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Personality traits and mediating pathways to mortality risk: A systematic review.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2024Pooled it
- Neuroticism facets and mortality risk in adulthood: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Pooled it
- Personality trait associations with quality-of-life outcomes following bariatric surgery: a systematic review.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2023Pooled it
- Personality Factors in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Review
- Personality and falls: evidence from three samples.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Personality nuances and mortality risk: A coordinated analysis of four longitudinal samples.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2025Article
- Neuroticism is associated with future disease and mortality risks.Chinese medical journal · 2025Article
- Association between healthy neuroticism and eating behavior as revealed by the NKI Rockland Sample.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Personality, Aging, and Alzheimer's Disease: Implications for Psychoneuroimmunology and Personalized Medicine.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Personality and Cognition: The Mediating Role of Inflammatory Markers.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Effects of Short- And Medium-Term Exposures to Lower Air Temperature on 71 Novel Biomarkers of Subclinical Inflammation: Results from the KORA F4 Study.Environmental science & technology · 2023Article
- Personality and aging-related immune phenotype.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Tryptophol Acetate and Tyrosol Acetate, Small-Molecule Metabolites Identified in a Probiotic Mixture, Inhibit Hyperinflammation.Journal of innate immunity · 2023Article
- Article
- Five-factor model personality traits and 24-h urinary cortisol in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2022Article
- Personality traits at age 16 and risk of metabolic syndrome at age 46.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2022Article
- Prospective self- and informant-personality associations with inflammation, health behaviors, and health indicators.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Personality is associated consistently with mortality hazards, but the physiological pathways are not yet clear. Immune system dysregulation may be one such pathway due to its role in age-related morbidity and mortality. In this preregistered study, we tested whether interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) mediated the associations between personality traits and mortality hazards. The sample included 957 participants (M ± SD = 58.65 ± 11.51 years; range = 35-86 years) from the Midlife in the United States Survey that had 14 years of follow-up. Higher conscientiousness was associated with lower mortality hazards, with each one standard deviation higher conscientiousness associated with a 35% lower mortality risk. IL-6, but not CRP, partially mediated this association, with IL-6 accounting for 18% of this association in the fully adjusted model. While there was initial evidence that the biomarkers mediated both neuroticism and agreeableness and mortality risk, the indirect effects were not significant when controlling for the sociodemographic variables. Taken together, higher conscientiousness may lead to a longer life partially as a result of lower IL-6. This work highlights the importance of biological pathways that link personality to future mortality risk.
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Registered trials
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.