Consistent with the literature on personality and health-related behaviors and outcomes, Neuroticism and Conscientiousness had the expected associations with IL-6: High Neuroticism and low Conscientiousness were associated with greater circulating levels of this inflammatory marker. Controlling for a variety of factors known to increase levels of IL-6, including smoking and disease burden, did not reduce these correlations to non-significance. Previous research on personality and health has focused primarily on self-reported subjective health or the ultimate health outcome – mortality – rather than the more proximal physiological mechanisms that mediate personality and physical health. The current research joins the growing effort to elucidate these links, particularly the connection between personality traits and IL-6, a marker of inflammation known to increase the risk of morbidity and mortality.
