Be kind, live longer!
Kind and open people live longer than bilious meanies. This obvious assumption was confirmed by scientists from several research centers in Boston, working within the framework of one of the largest American projects to search for "longevity genes" – "The Study of New England Centenarians" (New England Centenarian Study).
Both longevity and character traits are more or less determined by hereditary factors. But in a paper published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Jane L Givens et al., Personality Traits of Centenarians' Offspring), researchers led by Thomas T. Perls did not set out to discover another "longevity gene" or "cowardice gene". They simply showed that in older people whose parents lived to be a hundred years old, certain (and pleasant) character traits are more common.
Using the McCray and Costa five-factor personality questionnaire (NEO-FFI), 125 women and 121 men with an average age of 75 years determined the severity of such personality traits as neuroticism (one of the parameters reflecting the state of anxiety), extroversion (openness, orientation of the personality outward, to surrounding people, external phenomena), frankness, conscientiousness, as well as conformity (agreeableness, agreeableness in communication – the English term “agreeableness” cannot be translated in one word).
As expected, among grandparents with high chances to celebrate the centenary, people who were friendly, open, sociable and pleasant in communication were much more likely to meet. Meanies, neurotics, introverts deep into themselves, as well as brawlers and inveterate debaters among hereditary centenarians were much less common.
Unfortunately, psychotherapists have a saying "we don't treat character". But even if your character is far from ideal, why don't you try to be less nervous about trifles, show friendliness to your neighbor more often, etc. (see above)? There will definitely be no harm, and the benefit is quite likely.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru09.04.2009