Personality and Heart Rate Variability: Exploring Pathways from Personality to Cardiac Coherence and Health

Some studies have shown that there is a strong link between personality and health—physical health in general and cardiac health in particular. Personality influences health via several active pathways. Heart rate variability (HRV) is measured by the variability of beat-to-beat intervals, and is an indicator of health and wellbeing in the general population. High HRV is associated with reduced medical morbidity and increased longevity and higher cognitive functioning; low HRV is a predictor of risk for myocardial infarct (MI), and sudden cardiac death, and all-cause mortality.

The present project explored the correlates of personality traits on heart rate variability (HRV) to clarify how autonomic regulation may mediate the development and maintenance of health and disease. Participants were 271 volunteers from the community, adult men and women. They were 46 to 79 years old (mean 61.4, SD 8.7) of whom 37.5% were men. They received an extensive self-report questionnaire, allowing for a comprehensive personality evaluation. And of these participants, 118 underwent ambulatory—24 hours recording of HRV. The HRV recordings were sent to the Institute of HeartMath for interpretation. Data for personality was retrieved from the Qualtrics site after online administration, into which the HRV data were entered. Analyses were conducted in SPSS 20.

The results showed that systematic and significant associations between personality traits were found. In particular, the Temperament and Character Inventory’s character traits were related to autonomic balance as measured by the ratio of low frequency (sympathetic) to high frequency (parasympathetic) activity. Openness, aggression, avoidant attachment, and forgiveness were found to relate to several HRV variables.

In conclusion, the relations among personality and HRV support the validity of the measures in ways that clarify the strong relations among personality, HRV, and health. And further work to replicate and extend these preliminary findings in a larger sample is underway.

Article by Ada H. Zohar, et al, from Israel and USA.

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