Does Personality Predict Vaccination? Study of 48,000 People

Personality traits vaccination behavior may play a subtle but measurable role in whether people choose to get vaccinated — and a large-scale psychological study helps explain why. While most people assume vaccine decisions are driven purely by access, information, or social pressure, emerging research suggests that individual personality characteristics can nudge people in slightly different directions. Understanding this connection won’t predict anyone’s exact behavior, but it does offer a fascinating window into the psychology of public health decisions.

Have you ever noticed that two people can read the exact same news about a vaccine and walk away with completely different reactions? One person books an appointment immediately, while another hesitates for weeks. The difference often isn’t just about the information itself — it can reflect deeper psychological patterns. A major meta-analysis drawing on data from more than 48,000 participants explored this very question, examining how the Big Five personality traits relate to vaccine uptake psychology and vaccination-related attitudes.

Once again, personality researcher and author of Villain Encyclopedia, Tokiwa (@etokiwa999), will provide the explanation.
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What the Research on Personality Traits and Vaccination Behavior Reveals

A large-scale meta-analysis found a statistically significant but very small overall link between personality and vaccination behavior — an overall correlation of approximately 0.02. The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology and conducted by researchers at the University of Zurich, pooled data from 28 separate studies covering a total of approximately 48,712 participants. Rather than relying on a single experiment, this approach — known as a meta-analysis — combines many results to produce a more reliable and stable picture of the evidence.

The average participant age was roughly 38 years, and approximately 58% of participants were women. Crucially, the data came from both Western and non-Western contexts, which adds breadth to the findings. Although the correlation is small, the consistent directional trend across dozens of independent studies makes it scientifically meaningful.

It is important to understand what a correlation of 0.02 actually means in practice. It suggests that personality alone is nowhere near a reliable predictor of vaccine uptake. However, it does indicate that certain personality tendencies are associated with slightly higher or lower likelihood of vaccination — a nuance worth understanding. The takeaway is not that your personality decides whether you get vaccinated, but that it can be one small piece of a much larger puzzle that also includes environmental, social, and structural factors.

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The Big Five Personality Framework and Public Health Decisions

The Big Five model is the most widely used scientific framework for understanding personality, and each of its 5 dimensions relates differently to health-related behaviors like vaccination. Sometimes called the OCEAN model, these traits are not rigid categories but continuous spectrums — most people fall somewhere in the middle rather than at either extreme. Research in Big Five personality health behavior consistently uses this framework because it is cross-culturally validated and scientifically robust.

Here is a brief overview of what each trait represents in everyday terms:

• Extraversion: Enjoying social interaction, feeling energized by being around others, and being generally outgoing and talkative.
• Agreeableness: Being warm, cooperative, and motivated by concern for others’ wellbeing — essentially, high empathy and prosocial orientation.
• Neuroticism (Emotionality): Experiencing anxiety, worry, and negative emotions more intensely than average; being sensitive to perceived threats.
• Openness to Experience: Curiosity, creativity, and receptivity to new ideas, information, and unconventional perspectives.
• Conscientiousness: Being organized, disciplined, responsible, and planful in everyday life.

When facing a decision like vaccination, each of these traits activates a slightly different psychological lens. A highly open person may be drawn to novel medical interventions, while a highly neurotic individual may fixate on potential side effects. Understanding your own personality profile through this lens can help you identify where your instincts come from — even if those instincts ultimately don’t determine your final decision.

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Agreeableness and Extraversion: The Personality Traits Most Linked to Vaccination Behavior

Among all 5 personality dimensions, agreeableness showed the strongest positive association with vaccination — a correlation of approximately 0.06 — while extraversion also showed a small positive link at around 0.02. Although neither number is large, they represent a consistent directional finding across the pooled studies. This section explores what drives those connections and what they mean in practical terms.

Why Agreeableness Health Compliance Makes Intuitive Sense

Agreeableness — characterized by empathy, cooperation, and concern for others — is the trait most consistently linked to prosocial health behaviors. People who score high on agreeableness tend to be motivated not just by self-interest but by a genuine desire to protect those around them. This orientation maps naturally onto the logic of vaccination: getting vaccinated reduces your risk of spreading illness to vulnerable people who cannot protect themselves.

Research suggests that highly agreeable individuals are more likely to engage in behaviors that benefit collective wellbeing, including volunteering, charitable giving, and cooperative problem-solving. Vaccination fits this same pattern. The internal reasoning might sound like:

• Protecting family members, especially elderly relatives or young children who are more medically vulnerable.
• Avoiding passing illness to friends or colleagues — not wanting to be the source of someone else’s suffering.
• Supporting community-level health goals, understanding that herd immunity is a collective achievement.

It is worth emphasizing that the correlation here is still only about 0.06, which means agreeableness is not a strong predictor on its own. Highly agreeable people who face structural barriers — such as appointment scarcity, workplace constraints, or misinformation — may still find vaccination difficult to act on. Personality sets a mild psychological inclination; it does not override real-world circumstances.

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How Extraversion Preventive Health Behavior Connects

The link between extraversion and vaccination is subtler, but also logical. Extraverted individuals tend to have more frequent face-to-face interactions, larger social networks, and greater daily exposure to other people. This means they are, on average, exposed to a higher infection risk — and research suggests they may be more aware of that fact. Heightened social contact can naturally sharpen one’s awareness of contagious illness and the value of preventive measures like vaccination.

Additionally, extraverted people tend to have broader information networks. They hear about vaccination programs, discuss health topics in conversation, and may be more influenced by peer behavior. When their social circle is vaccinated, they are likely to receive positive reinforcement for doing the same. This social contagion of health behavior — where positive preventive actions spread through networks — tends to benefit those who are more socially embedded.

However, the effect size of approximately 0.02 is genuinely tiny. This means extraversion should not be treated as a reliable individual predictor of vaccine uptake. Many introverted people vaccinate readily, and many extraverted people hesitate. The relationship is a population-level tendency, not an individual rule.

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Neuroticism, Openness, and Conscientiousness: The Psychology of Vaccine Hesitancy

Not all personality traits point toward vaccination. Research shows that neuroticism — the tendency to experience anxiety and negative emotions — is associated with slightly more cautious or hesitant attitudes toward vaccination, with a correlation of approximately -0.07 when measuring vaccine-related attitudes. Openness and conscientiousness showed more nuanced and weaker associations, complicating simple predictions.

Neuroticism and the Psychology of Vaccine Hesitancy

High neuroticism — sometimes called emotionality — means experiencing worry, fear, and negative emotions more intensely than average. When it comes to vaccination, this manifests as a heightened focus on potential risks. A highly neurotic individual may fixate on reported side effects, worry about rare adverse events, or feel overwhelmed by uncertainty about long-term outcomes. This is not irrationality — it is a consistent pattern in how high-neuroticism individuals process risk information across many different domains.

Common thought patterns associated with high neuroticism and vaccine hesitancy include:

• “What if I have a bad reaction?” — Overweighting rare adverse outcomes relative to common benefits.
• “The vaccine is too new — I don’t trust it yet.” — Discomfort with uncertainty about long-term safety data.
• “I don’t want to make a decision I’ll regret.” — Avoidance of action driven by fear of negative consequences.

It is important to note that a correlation of -0.07 is still quite small. High neuroticism does not mean a person will refuse vaccination — it simply suggests a slightly higher probability of hesitation or delayed uptake. Many highly anxious people do vaccinate, especially when given clear, patient-centered communication that directly addresses their specific concerns.

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What About Openness and Conscientiousness?

Openness to experience showed a minimal association in the meta-analysis — the direction was weakly positive, suggesting that intellectually curious people may be slightly more receptive to new medical information, but the effect was not strong enough to be practically meaningful. Similarly, conscientiousness — despite being strongly linked to other health behaviors like exercise, diet adherence, and medication compliance — showed a near-zero correlation with vaccination behavior specifically (approximately 0.00 to 0.01).

This is a surprising finding. One might expect that organized, planful, responsible people would be reliably more likely to schedule and follow through with vaccinations. The fact that conscientiousness did not show a clear link may reflect that vaccination decisions involve a unique mix of factors — social trust, institutional confidence, and access — that conscientiousness alone cannot bridge. Being disciplined and organized helps with many health behaviors, but if someone lacks trust in health institutions or faces scheduling barriers, conscientiousness may not translate into vaccination action.

Practical Implications: What Your Personality Profile Means for Health Decision-Making

Understanding your own personality tendencies — even in a general sense — can help you recognize where your vaccination-related instincts come from and how to engage with them more constructively. This is not about labeling yourself or predicting your behavior, but about developing self-awareness around health decisions. Below are evidence-informed suggestions for each major personality tendency.

If You Score High on Agreeableness

Your natural orientation toward protecting others is a genuine psychological asset when it comes to preventive health. Lean into your motivation by framing vaccination explicitly in terms of community protection — not just personal safety. Research consistently shows that prosocial messaging (“protect your family”) resonates more strongly with highly agreeable people than self-focused messaging (“stay healthy yourself”). If you are already vaccinated, your influence on hesitant friends and family may also be greater than you realize, since agreeable people tend to be trusted communicators.

If You Score High on Neuroticism

Acknowledging your anxiety rather than suppressing it is key. Seek out detailed, credible information about vaccine side effects from official health sources — not to confirm your fears, but to put them in accurate statistical context. Studies show that highly anxious individuals often feel more reassured by specific data (e.g., “the most common side effect occurs in roughly X% of people and resolves within 2 days”) than by vague reassurances. Consider talking with a healthcare provider one-on-one, since direct personal conversation tends to be more calming than reading general information alone.

If You Score High on Extraversion

Your social awareness likely already primes you to think about infection risk. Use your social network actively: share accurate information, normalize the conversation about vaccination among your peers, and consider group vaccination appointments if available. Your behavior has visible influence on your network, and research in social psychology suggests that extraverted, socially central individuals are disproportionately influential in shaping the health norms of their communities.

If You Score High on Conscientiousness

Despite the weak direct correlation found in this study, your organizational skills are a practical asset for following through. Schedule vaccination appointments in advance, set calendar reminders, and treat it like any other important task on your to-do list. If your hesitation is less about anxiety and more about information-gathering, your thorough research style can be directed toward high-quality sources — but set a clear decision deadline for yourself to avoid indefinite deferral.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does personality alone determine whether someone gets vaccinated?

No — research strongly indicates that personality is only one small factor among many. The overall correlation between personality and vaccination behavior in the meta-analysis was approximately 0.02, which is statistically significant but practically very small. Environmental factors such as ease of appointment booking, social norms, family influence, and trust in healthcare institutions tend to have a far greater impact on actual vaccine uptake than personality traits alone.

Why does agreeableness relate to higher vaccine uptake?

Agreeableness is defined by empathy, cooperativeness, and concern for others’ wellbeing. People high in this trait tend to be motivated by prosocial goals — protecting family members, avoiding infecting others, and contributing to community health. These motivations align naturally with the logic of vaccination. Research showed a correlation of approximately 0.06 between agreeableness and vaccination-positive attitudes, making it the strongest personality predictor in the analysis — though still a modest effect overall.

Are anxious people less likely to get vaccinated?

People high in neuroticism — the tendency toward anxiety and negative emotions — showed a slight negative association with vaccination attitudes (approximately -0.07). This likely reflects a tendency to focus on potential risks such as side effects or unknown long-term outcomes. However, this correlation is very weak, meaning many anxious individuals do choose to vaccinate. Targeted communication that addresses specific concerns with clear, factual data tends to be effective for this personality group.

How reliable are these findings given the study size?

The meta-analysis pooled data from 28 independent studies involving approximately 48,712 participants, which represents a large and methodologically robust evidence base. Combining results across many studies reduces the risk of any single study’s biases skewing the conclusions. That said, the researchers themselves note limitations: data quality varied across studies, and there may be underrepresentation of certain cultural or demographic groups, meaning the findings should be interpreted as general tendencies rather than universal laws.

Does being extraverted make someone more likely to be vaccinated?

Research suggests a very small positive link between extraversion and vaccination behavior — a correlation of approximately 0.02. The likely mechanism is that extraverted people have more frequent social contact, which increases perceived infection risk and motivates preventive action. They also tend to have broader information networks and may be more influenced by peer vaccination norms. However, the effect is extremely modest and should not be used to predict any individual’s vaccination decision.

Why didn’t conscientiousness show a strong link to vaccination?

Conscientiousness — characterized by organization, responsibility, and planning — is strongly associated with many other health behaviors, so the near-zero correlation with vaccination (approximately 0.00 to 0.01) was a surprising finding. Researchers suggest this may be because vaccination decisions depend heavily on institutional trust and social context, factors that conscientiousness alone cannot address. A highly organized person who distrusts the healthcare system or faces structural barriers may not convert their conscientiousness into vaccine uptake.

What factors matter more than personality when it comes to vaccine decisions?

Research consistently identifies several factors that outweigh personality in predicting vaccination behavior: trust in healthcare providers and institutions, ease of access (appointment availability, cost, proximity), social norms within one’s community, the influence of family members’ attitudes, quality and source of health information, and prior experiences with the healthcare system. Personality may shape how someone initially responds to vaccine-related information, but these structural and social factors are far stronger determinants of actual behavior.

Summary: Personality Is One Piece of a Much Larger Puzzle

The relationship between personality traits vaccination behavior is real, but modest. Research drawing on more than 48,000 participants confirms that agreeableness and extraversion are associated with slightly more positive vaccination attitudes and behaviors, while neuroticism is linked to a marginally more hesitant stance. Openness and conscientiousness showed minimal direct associations in this context, despite their links to other health behaviors. The overall correlation between personality and vaccination sits at approximately 0.02 — a scientifically meaningful signal, but not a powerful predictor at the individual level.

What this means practically is that personality provides a useful lens for understanding your own instincts around health decisions — not a deterministic blueprint. If you recognize anxiety-driven hesitance in yourself, seeking out detailed and accurate risk information may help more than vague reassurance. If you are motivated by care for others, leaning into that prosocial framing may reinforce your existing positive inclinations. Understanding where your vaccination instincts come from is the first step toward making a decision that genuinely reflects your values and the best available evidence. Explore your own Big Five personality profile to see which of these psychological patterns resonate most with how you approach health decisions.