Personality has more impact on satisfaction than circumstances, study suggests

Researchers spoke to 20,000 people and those close to them to assess their level of general happiness with life.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh helped carry out the study (Jane Barlow/PA) (PA Archive)

People’s personalities have more of an impact on their level of life satisfaction than their circumstances, a new study has suggested.

Researchers from the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and University of Tartu in Estonia used a different method to assess life satisfaction.

Whereas asking participants to rate their own happiness can be biased, the academics supplemented such surveys by asking someone who knows them well the same questions.

It turns out people’s life satisfaction is even more about their personality than we thought

Lead researcher Dr Rene Mottus

The study – which looked at the satisfaction of 20,000 people – cross-referenced the responses, finding 80% of the differences in people’s life satisfaction could be traced to their personalities.

Lead researcher Dr Rene Mottus said: “It turns out people’s life satisfaction is even more about their personality than we thought.

“Personality tends to be stable, gradually shaped by a mix of thousands of experiences and genetic factors.

“So, the more satisfaction is about personality, the less it is expected to react to life’s ebb and flow.”

He added: “Broadly speaking, more satisfied people were more emotionally stable, extroverted and conscientious.

“But more specifically, those satisfied with their life felt understood, excited and decisive, while less satisfied people felt envious, bored, used, unable and unrewarded.”

The study also found that while satisfaction does fluctuate, it tends to return to consistent levels.

“This does not mean that experiences cannot have lasting influences on life satisfaction,” Dr Mottus said.

“But when experiences do matter, they have to shape people much more generally than simply making them more or less satisfied with life. This takes time and doesn’t happen too often.”

The study’s findings were published in the Journal of Personality and Psychology.