The Role of Big Five Personality Traits in Early-Stage Love

Drawing on data from the Romantic Love Survey 2022, we investigated how the Big Five personality traits relate to romantic love experiences, measured by the Commitment subscale of the TLS-15 and the Passionate Love Scale (PLS-30), among individuals in the early stages of romantic relationships (i.e., in the first 2 years). Using a structural equation modeling approach, we analyzed data from 907 individuals across 32 countries (47% women; M age = 22.14, SD age = 1.86). The results revealed modest associations indicating that individuals higher in agreeableness and conscientiousness reported slightly greater levels of love (both commitment of the TLS-15 and the PLS-30). Additionally, individuals lower in neuroticism reported slightly higher levels of the PLS-30. No significant associations were found between love intensity and extraversion or openness. In conclusion, the Big Five personality traits may help better understand love experiences during the early stages of romantic relationships. Furthermore, our findings offer a potential explanation for the mixed results in prior research by emphasizing the need to distinguish between early-stage and later-stage relationships. However, given the exploratory nature of the study and psychometric limitations of the personality measure (TIPI) and, consequently, of the specified model, our study should be regarded as providing preliminary findings that warrant caution when drawing any general conclusions.