Intolerance of uncertainty and personality: Experiential permeability is associated with difficulties tolerating uncertainty

•Examined relations between intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and personality.•Targeted maladaptive openness to experience (i.e., experiential permeability; EP).•IU was positively associated with EP.•IU–EP association was not accounted for by other personality dimensions.•EP is a novel personality dimension of relevance to IU.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is an individual difference variable that is conceptualised as originating as the result of personality, particularly neuroticism. In the present study, we provided the first known examination as to whether IU is associated with maladaptive levels of openness to experience, labelled experiential permeability, using a sample of community adults (N = 330). As predicted, IU was associated with experiential permeability and this association remained intact while controlling for other relevant personality dimensions (openness to experience, neuroticism, and extraversion). Results indicated that IU shared especially robust relations with two-of-the-four facets of experiential permeability (rigidity and superficial). These results indicate that experiential permeability can advance our understanding of IU beyond other personality dimensions.