Planning for end-of-life (EoL) is important but often neglected. It involves reflecting on what you’d like your final chapter to look like – who inherits your assets, who looks after you if you lose capacity, who gets a final say on medical decisions – and crystallising this into formal, legally-binding documents.

It is something many people put off, and understanding why has become an active area of research. Clearer planning has been linked to reduced stress for caregivers and fewer family conflicts, and better quality of life at the end of life for older adults, which is part of what makes uptake an important question for health and social policy.

Personality Traits and Ageing: A Neglected Angle in the Research

Research into why people do or don't engage in end-of-life (EoL) planning has tended to focus on socioeconomic differences — education, income, age. But Swiss researchers Valérie-Anne Ryser, Sarah Vilpert, and Jürgen Maurer from the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences and the University of Lausanne asked a different question: might individual personality differences also play a role? After all, EoL decisions are shaped by how people think and feel, and if psychological dispositions are driving differences in uptake, that has real implications for how policies are designed.

Using Survey Data from Older Adults in Switzerland to Understand EoL Planning

The study used data from 1,524 Swiss respondents aged 55 and over, combining data collected in Wave 6 (2015) with personality trait data from Wave 7 (2017).

Ryser and colleagues looked at seven distinct dimensions of EoL planning, spanning attitudes as well as concrete behaviours:

• Avoiding thinking about death
• Thinking about wishes for the last months of life
• Having discussed EoL preferences
• Having a will
• Having a power of attorney for financial, legal or administrative matters
• Having designated a healthcare proxy
• Having a living will

They then examined how these differed according to personality traits, by drawing on the Big Five framework — the most widely used model in personality psychology — which organises personality into five broad dimensions. Big Five personality traits in SHARE are assessed using a 10-question mini-assessment called the BFI-10.

Table: A Quick Primer on the Big Five

The authors accounted for a range of factors that might very plausibly shape planning behaviour: gender, age, education, partnership and parenthood status, subjective financial situation, living environment, Swiss linguistic region, self-rated health, and limitations in daily activities.

How Many Older Adults Are Actually Planning Ahead?

The descriptive findings alone are notable:

• 42% of participants said they avoid thinking about death almost entirely.
• 63% rarely or never reflected on their wishes for the last months of life.
• Roughly half had discussed their EoL preferences with someone.
• 37% had a will, 39% had a power of attorney, 21% had a living will, and just 16% had a designated healthcare proxy

Women, older adults, and those with higher levels of education were generally more proactive in EoL planning.

Personality Traits Showed Only Modest Effects

Three of the five traits showed statistically significant associations with at least one EoL planning outcome, although their effects were very modest.

Openness to experience showed the most consistent pattern. People scoring higher on openness were less likely to avoid thinking about death, more inclined to reflect on what they wanted their end of life to look like, and engage with the topic in general.

Extraverts were more likely to have a will – perhaps reflecting a sense of social responsibility among those with more extensive social ties, for whom the question of asset distribution feels more salient.

Most intriguingly, people with higher neuroticism more frequently contemplated their end of life, yet this did not translate into any formal planning behaviour. Anxiety, it seems, may prompt rumination without motivating action.

Notably, conscientiousness – the trait most associated with organisation, goal-setting, and long-term planning – showed no significant association with any EoL planning outcomes. The authors flag this as a surprising null finding.

A Note on Timing

It is worth noting that in 2015, when the EoL data were collected in SHARE Wave 7, living wills and healthcare proxies had only been introduced into the Swiss Civil Code two years prior. So these findings should be taken with a pinch of salt, as relatively low uptake of these instruments may partly reflect limited public awareness at that stage, rather than any deeper reluctance.

Good News for Policymakers

In all, personality traits appear to exert only a limited influence on EoL planning behaviour. No single trait emerges as a strong barrier to engagement, which suggests that well-designed interventions can reasonably target older adults across the full personality spectrum, without the need for heavily tailored approaches. The more pressing task may simply be normalising the conversation, by reducing the taboo around discussing death, and making the practical steps more visible and accessible.

Interested in conducting your own research on end-of-life planning using SHARE data? CLICK HERE.