Personality and Wellbeing of Lifelong Singles: New Insights from SHARE

A new study published in Psychological Science explores how lifelong singlehood influences personality and wellbeing using data from SHARE.

Exploring Singlehood in an Evolving World

(January 2025) While romantic partnerships have long been seen as a social norm, an increasing number of people are remaining single throughout adulthood. This trend has important implications for health, life satisfaction, and social support networks. A new study published in Psychological Science explores how lifelong singlehood influences personality and wellbeing using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).

The study by Julia Stern, Michael Dominik Krämer, Alexander Schumacher, Geoff MacDonald, and David Richter offers a significant improvement in the field, addressing limitations in prior research that could only study individuals, who were single at the time of the data collection. SHARE’s longitudinal design and life history data allow the authors to isolate and study different groups of lifelong singles. The authors compare the personalities and life satisfaction of lifelong singles to ever-partnered individuals and point to the possibilities of targeting social and health programs to the unique needs of this growing demographic group.

Combining Transparency and Rigor in Research

The article offers an excellent example in rigorous research guided by open science principles. Throughout the article, the authors elaborate on the process of preregistering their hypotheses and application of state-of-the-art robustness checks, such as specification-curve analyses, which tests the consistency of results across different model specifications.

Four preregistered hypotheses predicted lifelong singles to self-report lower extraversion and conscientiousness, higher neuroticism, and lower life satisfaction. Supplementary materials document the study design, variable selection, and analysis plan, all openly available through the OSF platform. These resources include step-by-step guides for using SHARE questionnaires and R analysis scripts, making the research accessible for replication.

Insights from 27 Countries

Using data from SHARE, the analysis is based on a sample of 77,064 participants in 27 countries. The authors operationalize three different definitions of lifelong singlehood: never married, never cohabitated, and never in a long-term relationship. SHARE’s cross-country dimension allows the researchers to control for the moderating effects of the cultural context, by incorporating variables such as religiosity, gender ratios, and the prevalence of lifelong singles in a country. Individual factors, including age, gender, income, and education, were also controlled for.

The study explores differences in personality, as measured by the widely used Big Five Inventory, and life satisfaction between lifelong singles and ever-partnered individuals. The Big Five Inventory can be operationalized in SHARE by using 10-items measuring the five dimensions of personality of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

The Complexity of Singlehood

The paper shows that lifelong singles are not a uniform block. Differences in personality and life satisfaction were most pronounced when lifelong singlehood was defined as “never partnered”, while results were weaker but still evident for those who were “never married” or “never cohabitated”.

Lifelong singles consistently showed lower extraversion and conscientiousness than ever-partnered individuals, while neuroticism and agreeableness showed no significant differences. Life satisfaction was lower among lifelong singles, with the largest gaps observed in younger participants and men. Differences were further influenced by age, gender, socioeconomic status, and cultural context.

Directions for Future Research and Policy

The authors underscore the need for future research to explore within-group differences among lifelong singles. Furthermore, the authors remind readers that cultural norms around partnership change with the times, so the study should be replicated with younger cohorts. As a growing demographic, lifelong singles require a unique understanding for the organization of social support and care as they age. Policymakers may need to develop targeted programs to address the health and social needs of this demographic.

Study by Stern, J., Krämer, M. D., Schumacher, A., MacDonald, G., & Richter, D. (2024). Differences Between Lifelong Singles and Ever-Partnered Individuals in Big Five Personality Traits and Life Satisfaction. Psychological Science, 35(12), 1364-1381. DOI: 10.1177/09567976241286865

URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09567976241286865