Rhinoplasty and the 'Big Five' Model: The Impact of Patients' Personality Traits on Post-surgical Satisfaction Outcomes

Eisenbach N, Mizrachi M, Dror AA, Hajouj M, Faris R, Ronen O, Sela E.

PubMed 40921775 Publisher (DOI)Free full text (PMC)

What this paper says

Comparing 117 rhinoplasty patients with 95 controls on the Big Five personality inventory, patients (especially women) were less neurotic and agreeable and more conscientious, and neuroticism correlated with aesthetic satisfaction after surgery.

Overview

The Israeli authors gave the NEO Five-Factor Inventory to rhinoplasty patients and general-population controls, and measured nasal perception with the RHINO scale before and after surgery, to see whether personality predicts satisfaction.

Sections of note

117 patients, 95 controls.
Patients showed lower neuroticism and agreeableness and higher conscientiousness than controls, most markedly in women.
Female patients had lower negative affect and self-reproach; male patients had lower positive affect than controls.
RHINO scores improved after surgery in all aesthetic and functional domains.
Neuroticism correlated with aesthetic satisfaction; conscientiousness was inversely associated with satisfaction in women. Level of Evidence III.

What it means for a patient

People who seek rhinoplasty differed on average from the general population in personality, but not in the direction (more anxious) that stereotypes suggest.
Highly conscientious women were somewhat less satisfied in this study, perhaps because of exacting standards.
The authors propose personality testing as a screening tool; this is a suggestion, not an established practice.

Why this paper matters

It links a standard personality model to rhinoplasty satisfaction with a control group. Limits: single centre, correlation only, direction of the neuroticism association not stated in the abstract.

Terms

Big Five: the five broad personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
NEO-FFI: a 60-item questionnaire measuring the Big Five.
Neuroticism: tendency toward negative emotion and anxiety.
RHINO scale: Rhinoplasty Health Inventory and Nasal Outcomes, a patient-reported measure.

Summary written by rhinoplasty.cc from the abstract, 2026-09-08; not medical advice. The authors' own abstract follows.

Abstract

Background: The nose plays a central role in facial aesthetics and perceptions of beauty. While personality influences the quality of life and self-perception, its effect on post-rhinoplasty satisfaction remains underexplored. This study investigates the relationship between personality traits and satisfaction with rhinoplasty outcomes.

Methods: A comparative analysis was conducted between rhinoplasty patients and the general population, assessing personality traits and nasal perceptions using the Rhinoplasty Health Inventory and Nasal Outcomes (RHINO) scale pre and post-surgery, along with the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) for personality structure profiling based on the Big Five model.

Results: A total of 117 rhinoplasty patients and 95 controls participated. Rhinoplasty patients, especially females, showed lower neuroticism and agreeableness but higher conscientiousness than controls. Female rhinoplasty patients had reduced negative affect and self-reproach, while males exhibited lower positive affect relative to controls. RHINO scale scores indicated post-surgery improvement in all aesthetic and functional domains. As for the relationship between personality traits and rhinoplasty satisfaction scores, significant correlations emerged between neuroticism and aesthetic satisfaction, while conscientiousness showed an inverse association with satisfaction among females.

Conclusion: These findings suggest distinct personality patterns among rhinoplasty candidates compared to the general population, with specific traits linked to postoperative satisfaction. We recommend using the NEO-FFI as a preoperative screening tool to identify patients at risk of dissatisfaction and encourage further research across diverse populations to validate these findings.

Level Of Evidence Iii: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Abstract as indexed by PubMed; the article is open access (PubMed Central).