Given the robust utility of neuroticism in predicting many significant human outcomes, it is essential that the causal mechanisms linking neuroticism to those outcomes be discovered. In order to lay a foundation for working hypotheses regarding these causal mechanisms, however, it is first necessary to review current evidence on the genetic and environmental causal influences on neuroticism itself. This is because some of the causal influences on neuroticism may also influence many of the mental and physical health outcomes and partly explain their associations with neuroticism.
