Despite numerous meta-analyses, the true extent to which life satisfaction reflects personality traits has remained unclear due to overreliance on a single method to assess both and insufficient attention to construct overlaps.
Using data from 3 samples tested in different languages (Estonian, n = 20,886; Russian, n = 768; English, n = 600), we combined self & informant-reports to estimate personality domains’ and nuances’ true correlations (rtrue) with general life satisfaction (LS) and satisfactions with 8 life domains (DSs), while controlling for single-method and occasion-specific biases and random error, and avoiding direct construct overlaps.
The associations replicated well across samples. The Big 5 domains and nuances allowed predicting LS with accuracies up to rtrue ≈ 0.80–0.90 in independent (sub)samples. Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness correlated rtrue ≈ 0.30–0.50 with LS, while its correlations with Openness and Agreeableness were small.
At the nuances level, low LS was most strongly associated with feeling misunderstood, unexcited, indecisive, envious, bored, used, unable, and unrewarded (rtrue ≈ 0.40–0.70). Supporting LS’s construct validity, DSs had similar personality correlates among themselves and with LS, and an aggregated DS correlated rtrue ≈ 0.90 with LS. LS’s ~10-year stability was rtrue = 0.70 and its longitudinal associations with personality traits mirrored cross-sectional ones.
We conclude that without common measurement limitations, most people’s life satisfaction is highly consistent with their personality traits, even across many years. So, satisfaction is usually shaped by these same relatively stable factors that shape personality traits more broadly.
[Keywords: personality traits, life satisfaction, well-being, multi-rater]