Personality Traits are Indicators of Fertility: Study

Extrovert people tend to be more fertile, a latest Norwegian study reveals.

The study, based on more than 7,000 people, found that conscientiousness decreased fertility in women; men's fertility was affected due to their openness. But extroversion increased fertility in both men and women.

For the study, the researchers at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis surveyed and examined birth registry data of men and women born between 1927 and 1968 in Norway. They studied the link between fertility and personality for both men and women, a first such study.

The researchers found that moody or emotional men born after 1957 did not have more children. The possible reason behind this was that the men of this group delayed having children.

According to the study, the first to study an association between personality and fertility, the proportion of childless men by age 40 increased from 15 percent to 25 percent between 1940 and 1970. For women, it increased a bit, from 10 percent to 13 percent.

According to lead author Vegard Skirbekk, although the study was done in Norway, the results have broader implications. "Many trends that have been observed first in Norway - increasing cohabitation, divorce rates, and later marriage, for example - have then been observed later in many other parts of the world," he said.

The researchers concluded that "childbearing in contemporary richer countries may be less likely to be influenced by economic necessities and more by individual partner characteristics, such as personality."

A previous study based on personality traits showed the possible age a person might live.