The three most common motives for plant-based diets in western populations are health, the environment, and animal rights. This study compares the structure, endorsement rates, and personality correlates of these motives among vegetarian and omnivorous (i.e., non-vegetarian) respondents. We found evidence for configural, metric, and scalar equivalence in the measurement of these motives across vegetarians and omnivores, suggesting that vegetarian diet motives function similarly whether or not the respondent identifies as vegetarian. Vegetarians, notably, reported being more motivated by the environment and animal rights than omnivores; health motivations were similarly high across groups. Several significant effects emerged linking vegetarian motives to personality traits, with patterns of correlations between motives and traits being highly similar across vegetarians and omnivores. Overall, these findings suggest that vegetarian eating motives are similar in terms of structure and personality correlates, but differ in endorsement rates, between vegetarian and omnivorous individuals.

Early investigations of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction with regards to health have been promising, but to date, there have been no systematic investigations of this interaction that account for the various personality measurement instruments, varying populations, or aspects of health. The current study – the second of three – uses a coordinated analysis approach to test the impact of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction on the prevalence and incidence of chronic conditions. Using 15 pre-existing longitudinal studies ( N > 49,375), we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the relationship between neuroticism and having hypertension ( OR = 1.00,95% CI [0.98,1.02]), diabetes ( OR = 1.02[0.99,1.04]), or heart disease ( OR = 0.99[0.97,1.01]). Similarly, we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the prospective relationship between neuroticism and onset of hypertension ( OR = 0.98[0.95,1.01]), diabetes ( OR = 0.99[0.94,1.05]), or heart disease ( OR = 0.98[0.94,1.03]). Heterogeneity of effect sizes was largely nonsignificant, with one exception, indicating that the effects are consistent between datasets. Overall, we conclude that there is no evidence that healthy neuroticism, operationalized as the conscientiousness by neuroticism interaction, buffers against chronic conditions.

Self-regulation refers to effortful control over one’s thoughts, emotions, choices, impulses, and behaviors, and has implications for older adults’ health. Executive function, physiological, and subjective indices have all been proposed to reflect self-regulation. Pairwise associations among these indices have been previously examined; however, a self-regulation constellation encompassing all of these indices has never been tested in older adults. The present study described the relationships among indices of self-regulation and tested their between- and within-person associations with upstream personality factors (conscientiousness) and downstream psychological and physical health in 149 older adults aged 60–93 years, assessed semi-annually for five years (up to 10 waves). Indices of self-regulation were only modestly correlated with each other but were each associated with health. Better executive function was associated with better psychological and physical health between and within people, whereas higher heart rate variability was associated with psychological health within people. Better subjective self-regulation had the most between- and within-person associations with better psychological and physical health. Conscientiousness was associated with subjective self-regulation and better psychological and physical health. These findings support the non-unitary nature of self-regulation in older adults and the health relevance of each of its indices between and within older adults. The aging process may change how the indices relate to each other, and older adults may draw more on certain self-regulatory components over others, given limited resources. Subjective self-regulation may be an important final common pathway to psychological and physical health in older adults.

In three large, nationally representative surveys of U.S. 12 th graders, college students, and adults ( N = 9 million) conducted 1968–2015, Americans became significantly more supportive of legal marijuana (cannabis) starting in the mid-1980’s. Hierarchical models using age-period-cohort analysis on the adult (General Social Survey) sample showed that the increased support for legalization is primarily a time period effect rather than generational or age effect; thus, Americans of all ages became more supportive of legal marijuana. Among 12 th graders, support for marijuana legalization was closely linked to perceptions of marijuana safety.