Who is having more and better sex? The Big Five as predictors of sex in marriage

• Wives’ agreeableness predicted a greater probability of sex.
• Husbands’ openness and neuroticism predicted lower own satisfaction with sex.
• Wives’ neuroticism predicted lower own satisfaction with sex.
• Partner personality was unrelated to own satisfaction with sex.

Prior research has been somewhat inconsistent in demonstrating links between personality and sexual functioning. We pooled the data from three independent daily-diary studies of newlywed couples to examine the association between individuals’ Big Five traits and the probability of sex on a given day; we also pooled the data from the two studies that assessed satisfaction with sex to examine the association between these traits and individuals’ satisfaction with sex when it occurred. Couples with wives high in agreeableness engaged in more frequent sex. Husbands low in openness or neuroticism and wives low in neuroticism reported increased satisfaction with sex when it occurred. Partner personality was unrelated to satisfaction with sex when it occurred.