Evidence is growing for the role of antagonism-related traits in weight gain across the lifespan. Highly antagonistic individuals, starting in adolescence, gain weight quicker than less antagonistic individuals (Midei & Matthews, 2009), a pattern that continues through old age (Räikkönen, Matthews, Kuller, Reiber, & Bunker, 1999). This weight gain may be due, in part, to their behavioral patterns. For example, hostile individuals tend to continue eating, even after they feel satiated (Van Den Bree, Przybeck, & Cloninger, 2006). The cumulative effect over the lifetime may end in the cardiovascular problems that are more common to individuals scoring high on measures of antagonism (Siegman, Townsend, Cahid Civelek, & Blumenthal, 2000; Smith & Ruiz, 2002; Tindle et al., 2009).
