The Big 5 personality traits linked to lifelong singlehood

It’s trendy to be single. According to a 2023 data release from the U.S. Census Bureau, 46.4% of American adults were single. The proportion of adults who have never been married reached record highs: Roughly 32% of women and 37% of men have never tied the knot, per the report. Those rates were 22% and 30% in 1980.

The increasing share of single and never-married individuals can be attributed to several factors, including greater longevity and more women in the workforce. And the trend toward singlehood is here to stay if Gen Z is any indication. They’ve embraced a new style of in-between relationship: the “situationship.” Writing for CNN, recent college graduate Sara Forastieri Vicente described it as “more than a friendship but less than a committed relationship” involving “both emotional and physical intimacy.”

“We’ve created our own small world in this vast universe of romance and love, one that normalizes fluidity and casualness in romantic partners,” she wrote.

But is eschewing attachment a recipe for emotional fulfillment? If a recent study published in Psychological Science is any indication, perhaps not.

Personality traits and relationship status

An international team of researchers sampled more than 77,000 people over fifty years old living in 27 European countries and Israel. They sought to compare the Big Five personality traits of lifelong singles with people who have been in committed relationships. The Big Five personality traits are:

• Openness. Reflects how curious and receptive someone is to novel experiences.
• Conscientiousness. Describes how organized, responsible, and detail-oriented a person is.
• Extraversion. Indicates how outgoing and sociable someone is.
• Agreeableness. Represents how cooperative and empathetic someone is.
• Neuroticism. Measures how emotionally stable someone is.

The researchers found that lifelong singles reported lower levels of extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness. They also rated their life satisfaction as lower than ever-partnered people did. Individuals who simply never married reported nearly identical personality and life satisfaction scores to lifelong singles. They were slightly more extraverted, however.

Personality differences between single and partnered individuals were relatively small for conscientiousness and openness — about three points lower on a 100-point scale. But the divide was greater for extraversion and life satisfaction. Lifelong singles scored just under six points lower in extraversion and just over four points lower in life satisfaction.

In many respects, the findings conform to conventional stereotypes. Extraverted and open individuals are more likely to get out, meet people, and potentially find themselves in a relationship. Moreover, being partnered can also force individuals to try new things. Conscientiousness is often prized in a partner. Being organized and responsible facilitates dating and cohabitation. Relationships can also encourage individuals to develop these skills.

The authors specifically looked at older individuals because the data would be more likely to capture people who are single or partnered by choice. Greater age also allows more time for these relationship decisions to affect personality.

Should Gen Zers be concerned about these results? Will a life full of “situationships” ultimately be less satisfying and dull their personalities? It’s uncertain. Core aspects of an individual’s personality tend to be stable, but significant changes can occur over decades. Moreover, the present study can’t parse whether lifelong singles’ personalities and life satisfaction differ due to their relationship choices or if their personalities dictate their relationship style.

The researchers note that what it means to be single is changing, so the results don’t necessarily portend the future for today’s young people.

They write: “More recent cohorts likely differ from older cohorts in norms and acceptance of singlehood, given that the importance of marriage for well-being is declining, that more people choose to stay single, and that younger cohorts report lower importance of partnership for happiness.”