Your personality could be making you fat - WSU Psych prof Tim Bogg comments in New York Magazine

New York Magazine – At any given moment, an estimated 108 million people in the United States are on a diet. But despite the fact that the U.S. weight-loss industry makes roughly $20 billion in revenue each year, people continue to fail for one reason or another. Part of the problem, new research suggests, is that our eating habits are influenced by deep-seated personality traits. Your neuroticism, in other words, could be partially responsible for your love of chocolate and cheese.

"These findings add to a growing body of evidence showing the importance of the personality traits of neuroticism and conscientiousness for a variety of health-related behaviors, including a healthy diet," said Tim Bogg, an assistant professor of psychology at Wayne State University, who has studied conscientiousness and health, but who wasn't involved in this study. "The results show that part of the complicated puzzle of maintaining a healthy diet over the long term is related to our general tendencies for emotion regulation and self-control, not simply how good we are at counting calories or avoiding trans fats."