Longevity experts reveal the personality traits that could help you live longer – and it’s bad news for people who thrive in chaos.
Being organised, engaged, and helpful could not just make you more enjoyable to be around, it may even help you live longer according to new research.
On the other hand, leaving everything until the last minute when stress levels are high, being frequently anxious or moody could be linked to a shorter lifespan.
Writing in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, longevity experts said their findings could help doctors predict health risks based not only on tangible measures like blood pressure, but also on how someone tends to think, feel and behave.
Professor Rene Mottus, an expert in ageing and individual differences and study co-author, said: ‘Rather than looking at broad, catch-all personality types like extroverted or conscientious, we zoomed in on individual descriptions: the precise ways people talked about themselves when filling out standardised personality questionnaires.’
They found that these mundane self-descriptions, that we often give little thought to, could be quietly predicting who lives longer.
‘The word ‘active’ was the most striking,’ Prof Mottus told The Guardian.
‘Participants who described themselves this way were significantly less likely to die during the study period—with a 21 per cent lower risk, even when age, gender and medical conditions were taken into account.’
The traits of being energetic, organised, responsible, hard-working, thorough and helpful were close seconds.
