A: Active, emotionally calm and organized.
B: Anxious, angry and fearful.
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People who are active, energetic, emotionally calm, informed, disciplined, organized and resourceful may live longer than their friends who have less positive personality traits, according to a 50-year study conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland. Striving for emotional stability and a conscientious and active lifestyle "can reduce health risks, increase life satisfaction and significantly extend life," lead study author Dr. Antonio Terracciano told Reuters Health.
The study: He and his colleagues assessed personality traits in 2,359 generally healthy people who enrolled in 1958 in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Data were collected when the participants were between 17 and 98 years old. During the 50-year study, 943 of the volunteers died.
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The results: Both men and women who scored above average in measures of general activity, emotional stability or conscientiousness lived on average two to three years longer than those who scored below average, reports Reuters Health. Women who displayed higher assertiveness also had a lower risk of death. These links between personality traits and longevity were independent of cigarette smoking and obesity, two major health risk factors. In addition, among the participants who died of cardiovascular diseases, the most significant predictors of death were traits of emotional instability such as anxiousness, depression, vulnerability and anger.
These findings add to the growing body of knowledge that indicates "enduring cognitive, emotional and behavioral tendencies (personality traits) have significant influence on health and longevity," Terracciano wrote in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
