Who is healthier? A meta-analysis of the relations between the HEXACO personality domains and health outcomes

Researchers and practitioners have long been interested in the relations of basic personality domains with health. Whereas previous meta-analyses have focused on the Big Five traits, we provide the first meta-analysis of the relations between the HEXACO domains, as assessed by HEXACO Personality Inventories, and various health outcomes (k = 276, N = 92,319). In general, relations of the HEXACO domains were strongest with mental health, followed by health behavior, whereas relations with physical health outcomes were weak and largely non-significant. All HEXACO domains were significantly linked to mental health and health behavior outcomes. Extraversion exhibited the strongest correlation with mental health (ρ = .48), whereas Honesty-Humility (ρ = .31), Agreeableness versus Anger (ρ = .25), and Conscientiousness (ρ = .31) were most predictive of health behavior. Physical health was only significantly associated with Emotionality (ρ = −.14) and Conscientiousness (ρ = .10). Honesty-Humility explained incremental variance over the Big Five in several health behavior outcomes, whereas it had little incremental validity for mental and physical health outcomes. Finally, comparing the variance that the HEXACO and the Big Five domains explained in specific health outcomes demonstrated that each personality model occasionally exhibited superior criterion-related validity. Hence, the choice of the more useful personality model could be outcome-dependent.