Personality traits “strongly” affect the amount of time and money donated to charity by individuals, according to new research by Sheffield University.

A report by Economics Professors Sarah Brown and Karl Taylor, Charitable behaviour and the big five personality traits, outlines five personality types that effect charity giving, including openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

The data based on almost 32,000 people in the UK reveals that extroverts and people who describe themselves as open to new experiences give more money to charity, while those displaying neurotic behaviour donate an average of £11 less over the course of a year – £153 compared to an average of £142 a year.

Neurotics also volunteer an average of 48 minutes less per month than other personality types.

The research also reveals that women donate on average 34 per cent more money to charity than men. People with children under the age of two are significantly less likely to donate time to charity, at eight hours less every month than those with no children.

But the amount of volunteering time increases for those with children aged between five and 11, according to the report – possibly related to children starting school and parents joining social volunteering networks.

"Personality traits influence donations of time and money, even after differences in things like income, age and gender are taken into account," the report said.  "These effects are also evident having controlled for cognitive ability, as measured by tests of word recall, numerical ability and verbal fluency."

Data for the research was taken from the "most recent large scale" UK household longitudinal survey, Understanding Society, with interviews taking place between 2009 and 2015.

• In the April issue of Charity Finance we look at what personality types are more prevalent at charities and how this influences performance. Find out more about subscribing here.