The Association Between Personality Traits and Dietary Choices: A Systematic Review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Increasing evidence shows how diet may play a role in improving health including mental health. Of note, personality may influence the type of diet and consequently the prognosis of medical and psychiatric conditions. The purpose of the present systematic review is to summarize the available data regarding the influence of personality on dietary habits affecting health outcomes. A search in the main databases was conducted matching the terms “personality,” “personality traits” with “food choices,” “food preferences,” “diet,” and “dietary habits.” A total of 1856 articles were screened, and 24 articles were finally included. Exclusion criteria consisted of studies on animals or children, studies about eating disorders, types of diet not clearly associated with health outcomes, and studies for marketing reasons. Several studies showed that personality traits can influence both dietary choices and the type of diet, including the preference for healthy or unhealthy food. Unfavorable personality traits such as neuroticism and alexithymia (the inability to identify and describe emotions) were associated with unhealthy diet habits such as low consumption of fruit and vegetables, and the increased consumption of sugar and saturated fats. Personality seems to play a role in food selection and in the propensity to change diet. The interpretation of these results should be weighted by the different cultural contexts in which the studies were conducted and the extreme heterogeneity of tools used to assess personality and food preferences. Future research should clarify how personality can affect diet in specific populations such as patients with severe psychiatric disorders.