In research that could have clinic implications for doctor-patient relationships, two nationally representative Australian surveys found doctors may be more neurotic than both patients and the general population, and are also significantly “less open” than those they treat.
However, when it comes to the “Big Five” personality traits, physicians were more agreeable, conscientious, and extroverted than both the general population and patients, said Mehdi Ammi, PhD, health economist of Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada, and the University of Queensland, Australia, and co-authors.
The findings were reported in BMJ Open.
Amni told MedPage Today that the most surprising finding, though, was that the doctors were far more neurotic than the other groups.
“They also have a slightly more external locus of control, meaning they think outcomes of their action depends more on external factors. We would have expected them to be less neurotic or externally controlled, or at least not different.
“We can only speculate about this, but we suspect this might be coming from their jobs being more demanding and stressful than the other groups.”
A physician’s agreeableness and conscientiousness should, in theory, increase a patient’s satisfaction with their care. Study authors nevertheless suggested that their findings may help doctors “better calibrate their judgments of patients and gain insight into factors that influence their patient interactions”.
“For example, due to their greater perceived conscientiousness, doctors might overestimate their patients’ ability to adhere to treatment plans, hence may not spend enough time detailing the importance of adhering closely to the plan,” Ammi said.
“Since doctors on average are more agreeable than patients, they may see patients as less empathic and kind,” he added.
“Knowing that they are a self-selected group of individuals who are more agreeable may help doctors adapt their expectations of patients” agreeableness.”
The investigators pointed out that there was potential danger of failing to recognise and understand their personality differences, as doctors’ higher neuroticism, “which is related to stress, could lead them to see stress as a normal part of life, and, thus, underestimate the impact of stress on patient well-being”.
To gather these scores, the researchers used data from two nationally representative Australian surveys: the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, and Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL).
Respondents were asked to assess their own personality traits in both surveys.
HILDA contains data on 25 358 individuals from the general public aged 20-85 as well as 18 705 patients. MABEL contains data from 19 351 doctors.
The study team decided to focus on the “Big Five” personality traits: conscientiousness, agreeableness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness. They defined agreeableness as being empathetic, kind, cooperative, and warm. They defined neurotic as being envious, moody, touchy, jealous, temperamental, and fretful. Conscientious was described as being orderly, systematic, efficient, careful, and organised, whereas being extroverted was described as being talkative, confident, loud, bold, and lively.
They also assessed people’s beliefs about personal agency, or the placement of the locus of control on internal (e.g., personal action) or external forces (e.g., luck).
The study found that physicians had a significantly more external locus of control than the general population, but they did not differ from patients.
There were no personality differences identified among physician specialties.
Ammi said the findings could help physicians become more prepared for treating certain patients, especially with personality traits that are notably different from their own.
“Future research should focus on neuroticism among doctors in comparison to other population groups and the role it plays in medical practice,” the authors wrote.
Study details
Does a doctor’s personality differ from those of patients, the highly educated and other caring professions? An observational study using two nationally representative Australian surveys
Mehdi Ammi, Jonas Fooken, Jill Klein, Anthony Scott.
Published in BMJ Open in Volume 13, Issue 4, 2023
Abstract
Objectives
Personality differences between doctors and patients can affect treatment outcomes. We examine these trait disparities, as well as differences across medical specialities.
Participants
We include 23 358 individuals from a representative survey of the general Australian population (with subgroups of 18 705 patients, 1261 highly educated individuals and 5814 working in caring professions) as well as 19 351 doctors from a representative survey of doctors in Australia (with subgroups of 5844 general practitioners, 1776 person-oriented specialists and 3245 technique-oriented specialists).
Main outcome measures
Big Five personality traits and locus of control. Measures are standardised by gender, age and being born overseas and weighted to be representative of their population.
Results
Doctors are significantly more agreeable (a: standardised score −0.12, 95% CIs −0.18 to −0.06), conscientious (c: −0.27 to –0.33 to −0.20), extroverted (e: 0.11, 0.04 to 0.17) and neurotic (n: 0.14, CI 0.08 to 0.20) than the general population (a: −0.38 to –0.42 to −0.34, c: −0.96 to –1.00 to −0.91, e: −0.22 to –0.26 to −0.19, n: −1.01 to –1.03 to −0.98) or patients (a: −0.77 to –0.85 to −0.69, c: −1.27 to –1.36 to −1.19, e: −0.24 to –0.31 to −0.18, n: −0.71 to –0.76 to −0.66). Patients (−0.03 to –0.10 to 0.05) are more open than doctors (−0.30 to –0.36 to −0.23). Doctors have a significantly more external locus of control (0.06, 0.00 to 0.13) than the general population (−0.10 to –0.13 to −0.06) but do not differ from patients (−0.04 to –0.11 to 0.03). There are minor differences in personality traits among doctors with different specialities.
Conclusions
Several personality traits differ between doctors, the population and patients. Awareness about differences can improve doctor–patient communication and allow patients to understand and comply with treatment recommendations.
MedPage Today article – Doctors More Neurotic, Less Open Than Patients, Surveys Find (Open access)
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