Open AccessLoneliness and the Big Five Personality Traits: A Meta‐analysis
Author(s) -
Buecker Susanne,
Maes Marlies,
Denissen Jaap J. A.,
Luhmann Maike
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.839
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1099-0984
pISSN - 0890-2070
DOI - 10.1002/per.2229
Subject(s) - agreeableness , hierarchical structure of the big five , loneliness , psychology , big five personality traits , alternative five model of personality , conscientiousness , big five personality traits and culture , extraversion and introversion , personality , openness to experience , neuroticism , facet (psychology) , meta analysis , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , medicine
This preregistered meta‐analysis ( k = 113, total n = 93 668) addressed how the Big Five dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) are related to loneliness. Robust variance estimation accounting for the dependency of effect sizes was used to compute meta‐analytic bivariate correlations between loneliness and personality. Extraversion ( r = −.370), agreeableness ( r = −.243), conscientiousness ( r = −.202), and openness ( r = −.107) were negatively related to loneliness. Neuroticism ( r = .358) was positively related to loneliness. These associations differed meaningfully in strength depending on how loneliness was assessed. Additionally, meta‐analytic structural equation modelling was used to investigate the unique association between each personality trait and loneliness while controlling for the other four personality traits. All personality traits except openness remained statistically significantly associated with loneliness when controlling for the other personality traits. Our results show the importance of stable personality factors in explaining individual differences in loneliness. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology.