Largest ever survey reveals what men and women are looking for in a long-term partner.
Anxiety and depression predicted by this common personality factor.
This personality trait increases the odds of reaching 85-years-old by up to 70 percent.
This personality trait increases the odds of reaching 85-years-old by up to 70 percent.
Optimism is one of the healthiest traits to have in a partner, research finds.
People married to an optimistic person have a reduced risk of dementia and cognitive decline.
Similarly, optimistic people themselves tend to live a longer life.
Indeed, being optimistic can increase the odds of reaching 85-years-old by up to 70 percent.
Critically, optimists believe they can control their lives and make improvements.
While optimism is partly genetic and related to upbringing and circumstances, there is evidence to show it can be cultivated.
Exercises such as visualising your ‘best possible self‘ have been shown to increase optimism.
Dr William Chopik, study co-author, said:
“We spend a lot of time with our partners.
They might encourage us to exercise, eat healthier or remind us to take our medicine.
When your partner is optimistic and healthy, it can translate to similar outcomes in your own life.
You actually do experience a rosier future by living longer and staving off cognitive illnesses.”
The conclusions come from a study of 4,457 couples who were tracked for up to eight years.
Dr Chopik explained the results:
“We found that when you look at the risk factors for what predicts things like Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, a lot of them are things like living a healthy lifestyle.
Maintaining a healthy weight and physical activity are large predictors.
There are some physiological markers as well.
It looks like people who are married to optimists tend to score better on all of those metrics.”
Optimistic people tend to create a healthier environment at home, said Dr Chopik:
“There’s a sense where optimists lead by example, and their partners follow their lead.
While there’s some research on people being jealous of their partner’s good qualities or on having bad reactions to someone trying to control you, it is balanced with other research that shows being optimistic is associated with perceiving your relationship in a positive light.”
Dr Chopik said people can become more optimistic if they want to change:
“There are studies that show people have the power to change their personalities, as long as they engage in things that make them change.
Part of it is wanting to change.
There are also intervention programs that suggest you can build up optimism.”
Along with being optimistic, studies also show that having a highly conscientious partner leads to more stable and healthier relationships.
People who are conscientious are more careful, efficient and self-disciplined — and they aim for achievement.
Indeed, conscientious people tend to live longer themselves.
Highly conscientious people live an average of two to four years longer than their less self-disciplined peers.
They are also less likely to smoke or drink and experience lower levels of stress.
The study was published in the Journal of Personality (Oh et al., 2019).
Two personality traits provided the biggest average differences between the rich and non-rich.
Perfectionism is a problematic personality trait that is on the rise.
Around 80 percent of people are thought to be optimists.
Around 80 percent of people are thought to be optimists.
Realists are significantly happier than both pessimists and optimists in the long-run, research reveals.
Pessimism and optimism are personality traits that lie at opposite ends of a spectrum.
Realists, meanwhile, sit halfway in between, occupying the middle ground.
Optimists may suffer in the long-term because they are often disappointed.
The regular disappointment can end up being a stronger emotion than the pleasure gained from anticipating positive outcomes.
The most optimistic people are 13.5 percent less happy than realists, the study found.
Around 80 percent of people are thought to be optimists.
The problem for pessimists is perhaps more obvious: they are constantly dreading the worst.
This dread can overtake any benefits gained from things turning out better than expected.
The most pessimistic people are 21.8 percent less happy than realists, the study also found.
Both optimists and pessimists make decisions based on biased false beliefs.
Dr Chris Dawson, study co-author, said:
“Plans based on inaccurate beliefs make for poor decisions and are bound to deliver worse outcomes than would rational, realistic beliefs, leading to lower well-being for both optimists and pessimists.
Particularly prone to this are decisions on employment, savings and any choice involving risk and uncertainty.
I think for many people, research that shows you don’t have to spend your days striving to think positively might come as a relief.
We see that being realistic about your future and making sound decisions based on evidence can bring a sense of well-being, without having to immerse yourself in relentless positivity.”
The study included 1,601 people who were tracked for over 18 years.
They reported their life satisfaction and any psychological distress each year.
People were also asked about their finances and their tendency to over- or under-estimate them.
The results showed that realists were most satisfied with their lives (life satisfaction is a measure of overall happiness, in contrast to momentary pleasure).
In the age of COVID-19, realism can be an advantage, said Professor David de Meza, the study’s first author:
“Optimists will see themselves as less susceptible to the risk of Covid-19 than others and are therefore less likely to take appropriate precautionary measures.
Pessimists, on the other hand, may be tempted to never leave their houses or send their children to school again.
Neither strategy seems like a suitable recipe for well-being.
Realists take measured risks based on our scientific understanding of the disease.”
The study was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (de Meza & Dawson, 2020).
Why friends are better at predicting how long you’ll live from personality traits.
Why friends are better at predicting how long you’ll live from personality traits.
Men with conscientious personality traits and those who are open to experience live longer, a study finds.
For women, those who are more agreeable and emotionally stable enjoy a longer life.
The kicker is that it’s your friends — not you — who are better at judging these personality traits from the outside.
The results, published in the journal Psychological Science, come from one of the longest studies in history, spanning 75 years (Jackson et al., 2015).
Dr Joshua Jackson, the study’s first author, said:
“You expect your friends to be inclined to see you in a positive manner, but they also are keen observers of the personality traits that could send you to an early grave.”
The researchers used data from research that began in the 1930s, following a group of couples then in their mid-20s.
Almost all were about to be married and tests of their personality traits were conducted on the engaged couples and their friends also reported on the couple’s personalities.
Dr Jackson said:
“Our study shows that people are able to observe and rate a friend’s personality accurately enough to predict early mortality decades down the road.
It suggests that people are able to see important characteristics related to health even when their friends were, for the most part, healthy and many years from death.”
But why is it that friends are better at judging how long we’ll live from personality traits?
Dr Jackson says:
“There are two potential reasons for the superiority of peer ratings over self ratings.
First, friends may see something that you miss; they may have some insight that you do not.
Second, because people have multiple friends, we are able to average the idiosyncrasies of any one friend to obtain a more reliable assessment of personality.
With self reports, people may be biased or miss certain aspects of themselves and we are not able to counteract that because there is only one you, only one self-report.”
Dr Jackson pointed out that the personality traits which predict long life may be different if the study were started again today.
That’s because the personality traits associated with a longer life in the 1930s may reflect out-dated gender roles.
In the 1930s women’s roles in society — often as easy-going, supportive wives — were much more confined.
Nevertheless, the study is a fascinating demonstration of the link between personality and longevity.
Dr Jackson said:
“This is one of the longest studies in psychology.
It shows how important personality is in influencing significant life outcomes like health and demonstrates that information from friends and other observers can play a critical role in understanding a person’s health issues.
For example, it suggests that family members and even physician ratings could be used to personalize medical treatments or identify who is at risk for certain health ailments.”
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The personality trait associated with less depression and anxiety.
The personality trait associated with less depression and anxiety.
People whose emotions are more stable have better mental health, research finds.
Stable emotions are linked to low levels of neuroticism, one of the five major personality traits.
People low in neuroticism report frequently feeling calm, unstressed and satisfied.
Indeed, people generally report feeling even more content, positive and cheerful in their middle and later years.
In other words, most people become more satisfied with their lives with age — and that is linked to good mental health.
However, people who are high in neuroticism tend to have more mental health problems, explained Dr Rebecca Ready, the study’s first author:
“People who score high on a neuroticism scale had less mental well-being over time and this pattern was stronger for older and midlife adults than for younger persons.”
The results come from 1,503 people who were followed over 10 years.
People whose personality was most stable at the start of the decade were least likely to experience common mental health problems like depression and anxiety at the end of the period.
The results showed that being neurotic was particularly problematic for older people.
Dr Ready said:
“On average, neuroticism tends to decrease during adult development, but not at the same rate for everyone.
Such decreases may result in better, broader and richer emotional experiences in later life.
This hypothesis is supported by results of the current study.”
Many people incorrectly think personality traits cannot change.
However, people can become significantly less neurotic after undergoing therapy, research finds.
Dr Ready said:
“We did not assess risk for future depressive disorders but it is reasonable to speculate that older and midlife adults high in neuroticism are at greater risk for depressive symptoms in the future than are persons lower in neuroticism.
They may also experience less well-being and may have less tolerance for complex emotions.”
The study was published in the journal Aging and Mental Health (Ready et al., 2012).
A review of research including almost 2 million people found that this personality trait nearly always had positive outcomes.
People were asked how they generally coped with stress and were given a blood test for markers of bodily inflammation.
People were asked how they generally coped with stress and were given a blood test for markers of bodily inflammation.
People who express their emotions more freely tend to have a stronger immune system, research finds.
In contrast, avoiding expressing the emotions is linked to more inflammation in the body, suggesting the immune system is not working as well.
Other studies have shown that loneliness, poor sleep and stress can also damage the functioning of the immune system.
The current research was conducted in the context of bereavement, explained Dr Christopher Fagundes, study co-author:
“There has been work focused on the link between emotion regulation and health after romantic breakups, which shows that distracting oneself from thoughts of the loss may be helpful.
However, the death of a spouse is a very different experience because neither person initiated the separation or can attempt to repair the relationship.”
The study included almost 100 people who had all recently lost a spouse.
They were asked how they generally coped psychologically with stress and were given a blood test for markers of bodily inflammation.
Dr Fagundes said:
“Bodily inflammation is linked to a host of negative health conditions, including serious cardiovascular issues like stroke and heart attack.”
The results showed that people who habitually bottle up their emotions tend to have greater signs of bodily inflammation, suggesting their immune systems are not functioning as well.
Dr Fagundes said:
“These findings really highlight the importance of acknowledging one’s emotions after the death of a spouse rather than bottling them up.”
The research shows the importance of expressing emotions both for mental health and the immune system.
Dr Richard Lopez, the study’s first author, said:
“The research also suggests that not all coping strategies are created equal, and that some strategies can backfire and have harmful effects, especially in populations experiencing particularly intense emotions in the face of significant life stressors, such as losing a loved one.”
The study was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine (Lopez et al., 2020).
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