Staying Single For Life Makes You Less Extroverted, Conscientious, And Open To New Experiences Than People With Partners
In today’s day and age, more and more adults are choosing to stay single for life. But as people get older, singlehood can have economic and medical downsides.
An extensive study has investigated how the personality traits of lifelong single people differ from those of partnered people, offering important insights into how society can better support this growing group.
“When there are differences, they might be especially important in elderly people who face more health issues and financial issues,” said Julia Stern, one of the lead authors of the study and a senior researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany.
“They need more help, and the help is usually the partner.”
The study examined more than 77,000 Europeans over the age of 50. The findings showed that lifelong singles had lower life satisfaction scores, were less extroverted, less conscientious, and less open to new experiences than partnered people.
The research team divided the participants into multiple groups of singlehood: people who have never married, never lived with a partner, or never been in any serious relationship.
The most notable disparities appeared in people who had never been in any serious relationship. They scored lower on life satisfaction, extroversion, and openness compared to those who were currently single but had lived with a partner or had been married before. All singles scored lower in these categories than people currently in relationships.
The study also suggests that personality differences and singlehood are directly connected. The evidence points to selection effects influencing personality since personality changes from relationships tend to be small and temporary.
“It’s more likely you have these selection effects: For example, people who are more extroverted are more likely to enter a relationship,” Stern said. She also emphasized that the results are average effects and do not necessarily apply to everyone.
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In European countries with higher marriage rates, singlehood resulted in even lower life satisfaction scores, although the effects were minimal. The religiosity of a country also did not influence the findings.
Across gender and age, single women scored higher on life satisfaction than single men. Compared to middle-aged singles, older people were typically happier with their single status.
This may be because the phase of getting married and starting families is now behind them, allowing older singles to embrace their situation and find greater contentment.
Still, single people’s lower life satisfaction scores are concerning. Previous research has shown that life satisfaction and certain personality traits like extroversion and conscientiousness can predict health and mortality. Overall, the findings point to the need for improved support networks for older singles.
“There are differences between people who stay single their entire lives and people who get partnered, and for me, this means that we have to take extra care of these people,” said Stern. “If they have people who care for them or look out for them regularly, this might help.”
The study was published in Psychological Science.
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