Portraits of procrastinators: A meta-analysis of personality and procrastination

Despite extensive research on procrastination, knowledge of its portrait remains limited. We integrate two perspectives in exploring the relationship between personality and procrastination: the traditional Big Five traits and the darker traits known as the Dark Triad. Through a meta-analysis of 47 independent samples with 18,839 participants, we found that most Big Five traits were negatively related to procrastination, while the Dark Triad traits were positively associated with procrastination. Moreover, the incremental variance analyses revealed that the Dark Triad captured variance in procrastination beyond the Big Five. However, the results of the relative weight analysis were more nuanced, as emotional stability, psychopathy, and conscientiousness emerged as the most important factors. Finally, life domain and national culture contributed to variations in the personality-procrastination relationship. Overall, the findings provide a more comprehensive and clearer understanding of the associations between personality and procrastination.