In psychology, a distinction is made five basic dimensions of personality, These are often referred to as the “Big Five” personality traits. These are extroversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Each of these traits has its own characteristics, and despite the wide availability of tests and assessments, experts stress that no one is 100% one of them. We are a combination of all five in varying degrees.
What this type of categorization does allow is to relate them with different kinds of daily habitswhether it is sport, diet, study or, in this case, smoking. And that is precisely what a recent study, published in Plos One and led by experts from universities in Portugal and the United States, has done.
Cigarette smokers, cigar smokers and non-smokers, say authors led by Dritjon Gruda and Jim McCleskey, have different personality profiles. What is the use of this knowledge?
Tobacco consumption remains a major global public health challenge, responsible for more than 8 million deaths a year, including those attributed to exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. Numerous studies highlight the key role of psychological factors, including personality traits, in shaping tobacco use patterns.
To explore this question further, Gruda and McCleskey examined the association between the Big Five personality traits and cigar or cigarette smoking in a sample of 9,918 older adults in 10 countries: the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Greece.
The data were obtained from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) database and significant associations were found between several traits and groups of smokers. «Smoking was associated with lower scores on conscientiousness and agreeableness and higher scores on extraversion, the study notes. In addition, cigar smokers exhibit lower neuroticism and higher openness compared to both cigarette smokers and nonsmokers.
The authors speculate that relatively low conscientiousness amongand smokers may reflect a lack of self-discipline and a disregard for the long-term health risks characteristic of more impulsive behaviours; while lower agreeableness could help explain why smokers often persist despite social disapproval. They also suggest that the greater observed extraversion may suggest that these individuals enjoy the social nature of smoking, underlining that the motivations and contexts of tobacco use are diverse and numerous.
The reality, the authors point out, is that the idea that various personal characteristics can predict health, health-related behaviors, and overall well-being is a fundamental concept in a number of fields, including medicine, psychiatry, health psychology, and clinical psychology. For example, personality is associated with risky health outcomes, including smoking, sedentary lifestyle, diet, and substance abuse. In a previous study, Gruda noted that narcissism, is associated with state-level health outcomes.
Of all the studies conducted on personality and smoking to date, most agree that neuroticism In particular, it has emerged as one of the strongest predictors of smoking behaviour in general: neurotic individuals are more likely to start smoking and have greater difficulty quitting. This is because this personality trait is a “struggle” with emotional regulation and they may turn to tobacco to relieve anxiety and stress.
The relationship between the extroversion and smoking: Having external support can be reassuring and if the result was positive in the past, it can be used as a “crutch” when it comes to socializing.
In contrast, high levels of conscientiousness (indicating self-discipline and focus on long-term goals) are associated with lower rates of smoking initiation and a greater likelihood of successful quitting.
Agreeableness, a trait representing compassion and cooperation, also tends to correlate negatively with smoking. People with low levels of agreeableness are generally more likely to start smoking and less likely to quit, possibly due to reduced interpersonal sensitivity and lower tendency to comply with social norms that discourage smoking. In this sense, the study highlights that “cigar smokers may exhibit different personality profiles compared to cigarette smokers” and the generalization is very complex, but useful.
Thus, it would be justified to examine the link between personality as a predictor not only of smoking behavior (i.e., whether an individual chooses to smoke or not) but more specifically of the smoking preferences or how an individual chooses to use tobacco.
Thus, the findings suggest that personality traits are antecedents of smoking behavior, with implications for targeted public health interventions and social policies aimed at combating the global tobacco epidemic. According to the authors, future research should explore these relationships in younger cohorts, which could inform early intervention strategies that prevent smoking initiation based on predisposition to certain personality types. Further studies could also broaden the scope to include other forms of tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, or more recent smoking trends, such as electronic cigarettes and vaping.
In conclusion, “This study enriches our understanding of the psychological dimensions of tobacco use and provides a basis for developing more precise and effective public health interventions,” the study concludes. “We hope that understanding the interaction between these factors can provide valuable information for public health interventions aimed at reduce smoking rates and improve public health outcomes Because basically what we find is: tell me what you smoke and I’ll tell you who you are.