Are you good at coping when life gets tough? Do people call you a straight-shooter? Will you help others without expecting anything in return? Those personality traits might do more than help you win a popularity contest. Your brain?s own natural painkiller chemicals may actually respond to the pain differently depending on your personality. Zubieta notes that the new findings came from a study involving pain, but that it may also apply to how personality influences a person?s response to other stress-inducing circumstances. For the first time, the new findings link specific, established personality traits with an individual?s susceptibility to the placebo effect from a sham medicine for pain.