News release

From: PLOS

Neuroticism may be linked with more frequent sexual fantasies

Personality trait study also reports less frequent fantasizing among people who are more conscientious or agreeable

People with a relatively neurotic personality report having more frequent sexual fantasies, while people who are relatively conscientious or agreeable report less frequent fantasizing. Emily Cannoot of Michigan State University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings from their new 5,225-person study in the open-access journal PLOS One on February 4, 2026.

Prior research suggests that sexual fantasies are common and might benefit people’s happiness and relationships. A deeper understanding of links between people’s personality characteristics, how often they have sexual fantasies, and what they tend to fantasize about could help inform efforts by clinicians and mental health professionals to improve sexual wellbeing. However, few studies have explored potential links between personality traits and sexual fantasies.

Cannoot and colleagues analyzed data from 5,225 adults in the U.S. who completed two standardized questionnaires. The first captured overall frequency of fantasizing as well as frequency of fantasizing about certain themes, which fell into four broad categories: exploratory (including the theme “participating in an orgy”), intimate (including “making love outdoors in a romantic setting”), impersonal (including “watching others have sex”), or sadomasochistic (including “being forced to do something”).

The second questionnaire captured the widely accepted Big Five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and open-mindedness. It also assessed subcomponents of the Big Five; for instance, depression or anxiety as facets of neuroticism, and compassion or respectfulness as facets of agreeableness.

Statistical analysis of the data showed that people who scored high in conscientiousness and agreeableness reported less frequent sexual fantasizing across all four categories. Taking a closer look, those results were primarily driven by respectfulness and responsibility. Meanwhile, people with a high neuroticism score, in particular those with more depressive personalities, reported more frequent sexual fantasies. No significant associations were seen between extraversion or open-mindedness and frequency of sexual fantasies. These findings held true across the four different categories of fantasies.

Future research could expand on these findings, such as by including participants from other countries or examining whether people’s personalities and sexual fantasizing habits co-develop over time.

The authors say: “One implication of the current work is that individual differences in personality might be useful in predicting variation in sexual fantasy frequencies, although they are not wholly redundant with each other (and some associations are relatively small or modest). Knowing these associations further advances the predictive power of personality while showing that variation in sexual fantasies is common.”