{"doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf212","title":"Trends over 45 years in personality traits among older populations","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: Substantial literature indicates that personality traits are integral to well-being and health in aging. We examined time trends in personality over birth cohorts spanning 45 years. METHODS: We used two community-based studies of 3,000 older adults at Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, continuously enrolled since the 1990s and born across seven birth cohorts: 1905-1914, 1915-1919, 1920-1924, 1925-1929, 1930-1934, 1935-1939, and 1940-1950. Conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion were assessed using components of the NEO five-factor personality inventory. RESULTS: Overall, the mean age was 79 years (interquartile range: 73-84). Within birth cohorts, mean age ranged from 87 years (standard deviation [SD] ± 4.8) among those born in 1905-1914 to 72 ± 4.3 years among those born in 1940-1950. Over 90% of participants were white, and about one-quarter were male. Given the modest age range, age was not related to personality, although sex and study varied; we compared sex- and study-standardized mean levels of personality across birth cohorts. We found strong associations of later birth cohort with lower neuroticism (e.g., mean ± SD neuroticism was 16.7 ± 6.3 for the 1905-1914 birth cohort; 15.8 ± 6.5 in 1925-1929; 15.2 ± 7.0 in 1940-1950; overall p < .0001 across birth cohorts). Similarly, conscientiousness was higher with later birth cohort (e.g., mean ± SD conscientiousness was 33.7 ± 4.7 in the 1905-1914 birth cohort; 33.9 ± 5.6 in 1925-1929; 35.3 ± 5.9 in 1940-1950; overall p < .0001). Trends were weak for extraversion. DISCUSSION: We found associations of later birth cohort with lower neuroticism and higher conscientiousness among older adults. Findings suggest that personality at older ages is amenable to population-level shifts, with implications for health.","journal":"The Journals of Gerontology Series B","year":2025,"id":579313,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8726,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":321320,"name":"R. J. Wilson","orcid":"0000-0002-8184-4103","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":321316,"name":"Eileen K Graham","orcid":"0000-0003-3095-4625","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":321321,"name":"Daniel K. Mroczek","orcid":"0000-0003-3748-5059","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":778,"name":"David A. Bennett","orcid":"0000-0003-3689-554X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":340012,"name":"Francine Grodstein","orcid":"0000-0002-2699-7051","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":24,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:30.282164Z","pmid":"41148040","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}