Thaindian News

London, June 9 (IANS) The personality traits of men and women can influence their reproductive success, a new research by the University of Sheffield has found.
The study found that women with higher levels of neuroticism (tendency to experience negative emotional states) and more extrovert men, are likely to have a higher number of children in societies with traditionally high birth rates.

Virpi Lummaa, from the University’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, who led the study, said: “Our results show that personality predicts family size differently in men and women, and those men with largest families have personality aspects different from the women with the largest families.”

Women with above-average levels of neuroticism, prone to be anxious, depressive, and

moody, had 12 percent more children than those below average.

This relationship was stronger amongst women with a higher social status. A negative association between maternal neuroticism and offspring´s physical condition suggested that high neuroticism carries a cost for the families.

In the study of men, individuals with above average levels of extraversion, prone to be

sociable and outgoing, had 14 percent more children than men with below average extraversion, said a release of University of Sheffield.

The study also found evidence of a link between maternal personality traits and the offspring´s physical condition, as women with higher neuroticism levels were more likely to have children with a decreased body mass index (BMI) or height to weight ratio reflecting malnutrition.

The researchers gathered data from four villages in rural Senegal.

Previous work had been carried out in modern Western populations, but the current research was conducted in a more traditional population, enabling the team to test how personality affects fertility rates in a ‘natural environment’ marked by high birth rates.

These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The co-authors of the study were Alexandra Alvergne, an anthropologist at University College, London, and Markus Jokela of the University of Helsinki, Finland.