Personality traits and eating habits: the assessment of food preferences in a large community sample

The 48 dietary items from three popular eating surveys (the Kristal Food Habits Questionnaire, Block Fiber Screener, and Block Fat Screener) were administered concurrently to a large community sample. To provide evidence of the hierarchical structure of these eating practices, both orthogonal and oblique factor rotations of from one to five factors are compared. Also provided are the relations between dietary factors and gender, age, and education, as well as a broad set of personality attributes. Although self-reported eating practices were not associated with educational level, intelligence, nor various indices of psychopathology, they were related to the demographic variables of gender and age: older participants reported eating more fiber in their diets than did younger ones, and women reported more avoidance of fats from meats than did men. When these demographic associations were statistically controlled, we found an intriguing pattern of association with measures of other health-related practices, vocational interests, and such personality attributes as Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.