Laughing At Death May Keep It Away

“Let a Smile be Your Umbrella” was a hit song way back in 1927. People who followed its advice back then have enjoyed a bigger chance of still being alive than those who greeted it with disdain.

A study of people who have lived to be 100 years old finds that if you have a sunny disposition, you may live longer than someone  who is a sourpuss.

“When I started working with centenarians, I thought we’d find that they survived so long in part because they were mean and ornery,” says researcher Nir Barzilai, M.D., director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Institute for Aging Research. “But when we assessed the personalities of… 243 centenarians, we found qualities that clearly reflect a positive attitude towards life. Most were outgoing, optimistic and easygoing. They considered laughter an important part of life and had a large social network. They expressed emotions openly rather than bottling them up.”

In addition, the centenarians had lower scores for displaying neurotic personality and higher scores for being conscientious compared with a representative sample of the U.S. population.

“Some evidence indicates that personality can change between the ages of 70 and 100, so we don’t know whether our centenarians have maintained their personality traits across their entire lifespans,” says Barzilai. “Nevertheless, our findings suggest that centenarians share particular personality traits and that genetically-based aspects of personality may play an important role in achieving both good health and exceptional longevity.”