Will I lose my hair? Big Five personality traits and hair loss via scalp sweating

• Mansik Yun

  Department of Psychology and Counseling, Fairleigh Dickinson University

In this research I developed a mediation model in which individuals’ personality traits according to the five-factor model (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) predict hair loss via scalp sweat. To test the proposed model I used archival data obtained from 472 people (157 men and 315 women) living in Germany. It was found that scalp sweat mediated (a) the negative relationship between conscientiousness and hair loss and (b) the positive relationship between neuroticism and hair loss. Results also showed that gender moderated the association between neuroticism and scalp sweat, such that the relationship between neuroticism and hair loss was stronger for men than it was for women. On the basis of the assumption that personality traits can play a critical role in interpreting the surrounding environment, this study is first to test the relationship between the five-factor model and hair loss via scalp sweat (a physiological response to a stressful environment).

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