Personality’s link to relationship satisfaction is different for men and women

A study involving 3,780 adults from Australia, Denmark, and Sweden has found that the link between personality and relationship satisfaction differs between men and women. For example, extraverted men were more likely to have a romantic partner and tended to be more satisfied with their families, an effect less pronounced in women. In contrast, the link between agreeableness and family satisfaction was stronger for women. The paper was published in the Journal of Research in Personality.

Personality is the consistent pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that defines how an individual interacts with the world. Currently, one of the most widely accepted frameworks for describing personality is the Big Five model.

The Big Five model proposes that there are five broad dimensions of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Openness refers to imagination, curiosity, and a preference for novelty. Conscientiousness involves organization, responsibility, and dependability.

Extraversion reflects sociability, energy, and a tendency to seek stimulation from others. Agreeableness represents kindness, empathy, and cooperativeness. Neuroticism describes emotional instability and the tendency to experience negative emotions like anxiety or irritability.

Study authors Filip Fors Connolly and Mikael Goossen hypothesized that the associations between personality and relationship outcomes would differ for men and women. They predicted that the link between agreeableness and relationship satisfaction would be stronger for women, while the connection between extraversion and relationship satisfaction would be stronger for men.

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The authors analyzed data from an online survey conducted in 2016. The survey included 3,780 adult participants from Australia, Denmark, and Sweden, of whom about 54% were women.

Participants completed assessments of the Big Five personality traits (using the 20-item Mini-IPIP scale) and measures of relationship satisfaction with their friendships, family, and romantic partners (using items from the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults). They also reported their relationship status by answering the question, “Are you in a stable relationship?”.

Results showed that personality’s link to partnership status was moderated by gender. For men, higher extraversion was strongly associated with being in a stable relationship. In contrast, higher neuroticism and agreeableness were associated with a lower likelihood of being in a relationship for men. For women, the patterns were different. Higher neuroticism was linked to a higher likelihood of being partnered, while agreeableness had a neutral-to-slightly-positive association.

For those already in ongoing relationships, the link between higher neuroticism and lower relationship satisfaction was stronger in men than in women, particularly regarding romantic satisfaction. The positive association between extraversion and family satisfaction was also stronger for men. Conversely, the link between agreeableness and family satisfaction was stronger for women. The study authors report that these patterns were largely stable across the three countries.

“The results revealed important distinctions across relationship domains, with gender-personality interactions being most robust in relationship formation processes,” the study authors concluded. “The gender moderation effects we observed—particularly the stronger associations between extraversion and men’s partnership formation—suggest the continued relevance of gender role expectations in intimate relationships, even within relatively egalitarian societies.”

The study provides evidence on how personality traits and gender interact in shaping relationship experiences. However, all data used in this study came from self-reports leaving room for reporting bias to have affected the results.

The paper, “The interplay between gender and personality in relationship outcomes: Satisfaction across domains and partnership status,” was authored by Filip Fors Connolly and Mikael Goossen.