Women, but not men, get an added health benefit when paired with someone who is conscientious and neurotic, U.S. researchers said.
Study leader Brent Roberts of the University of Illinois and colleagues call the the boost in health reported by those with conscientious spouses or romantic partners the compensatory conscientiousness effect.
Highly conscientious people are more organized and responsible and tend to follow through with their obligations, to be more impulse controlled and to follow rules,
Roberts said in a statement.
Highly neurotic people tend to be more moody and anxious, and to worry, he said.
Roberts and colleagues looked at the association of personality and self-reported health among more than 2,000 couples age 50 and older.
The study asked participants to rate their own levels of neuroticism and conscientiousness and to answer questions about the quality of their health.
The researchers found a significant, self-reported health benefit that accompanied marriage to a conscientious person, even among those who described themselves as highly conscientious.
A more unusual finding involved an added health benefit reported by women who were paired with highly conscientious men who were also highly neurotic, Roberts said. The same benefit was not seen in men with highly conscientious and neurotic female partners.
However, Roberts says that given a choice between a man who is simply conscientious and one who is conscientious and neurotic, choose the conscientious mate.
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