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Weight gain influenced impulsive behavior
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Researchers investigating psychological traits as they relate to weight gain found that patients who gain weight are more likely to be impulsive. However, these patients also tend to deliberate more about their actions.
“The present research suggests that there is a potential downward spiral for people struggling with their weight,” Angelina R. Sutin, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the Florida State University College of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging, and colleagues wrote in Psychological Science. “The impulsiveness aspect of neuroticism is the strongest personality-trait contributor to weight gain, and our current findings suggest that weight gain is associated with increases in this trait.”
Sutin and colleagues at the NIH conducted the study using data from two longitudinal cohorts: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) and the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study. Personality assessments, as well as weight and height data, were collected for 1,919 patients (median age, 59 years) during a 10-year period.
According to researchers, weight gain among patients from both cohorts demonstrated changes in impulsiveness. Those who gained more than 10% of their body weight between baseline and follow-up displayed an increased tendency to be more impulsive (P<.01) vs. participants who did not gain a significant amount of weight. However, researchers also found that weight gain was linked to increased deliberation (P<.05).
These findings suggest that emotional impulsivity is superior to deliberation of actions when weight is a factor. Sutin and colleagues suggest further research that considers additional personality measures and the mechanisms underlying these effects.
“… Interventions focusing on the emotional component of impulse control may be more effective because even people who become more thoughtful about the consequences of their actions may have limited success at inhibiting their behavior,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosure: Study researcher Paul T. Costa Jr., PhD, receives royalties from the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). All other researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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