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Certain 'Personality Genes' Correlate With Longevity, Says Study
An anonymous reader writes "People who are outgoing, optimistic, easygoing, and have a good sense of humor and a large social network are likely to live longer than others who don't possess these personality traits, according to new research (abstract). The study reveals how saying, 'It's in their genes' could refer to more than just genetic variations that give a physiological advantage, like having high levels of HDL ('good') cholesterol, because people with positive personality traits appear to live longer than those who do not."
optimistic, easygoing, and have a good sense of humor and a large social network
Well, we here at Slashdot might as well go out and jump off a bridge. Really.
We're doomed.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I expect they're not exactly talking about Facebook... so will Mark Zuckerberg be filing a cease and desist against the authors?
#DeleteChrome
Well fuck you too.
Is this an exception ?? Nope !!
I guess it works the other way as well.
So, happy people live longer?
I'm shocked.
outgoing, optimistic, easygoing, and have a good sense of humor and a large social network
All I need now is to buy a controlling stake of FB and I'll live forever!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
If you are a good guy with friends who looks after himself and stays both mentally and physically active, getting on in life instead of sitting on is fat arse all day you live longer. Who knew?
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Life as an introverted, brooding pessimist with no friends or sense of humour is hell, but at least it won't last as long.
"People who are outgoing, optimistic, easygoing, and have a good sense of humor and a large social network are likely to live longer than others who don't possess these personality traits
But I'm a computer nerd you insensitive clod
These correlations are hardly a surprise If you are healthy, wealthy you are more likely to live longer. And its easier to have a good sense of humor and optimisitic you are settled well. It is also more likely that you have a larger social network then. The correlation between healthy and living longer is trivial. The correlation between wealthy and living longer is no secret since health systems are already selective. If you are padded well you more likely will get an experienced surgeon for example or get a vital organ faster.
Who'd have thought that aggressive, competitive people end up dying earlier than more laid back types? Go Science!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
These correlations are hardly a surprise If you are healthy, wealthy you are more likely to live longer.
All of the attributes listed (optimistic, outgoing, large social network) are totally orthogonal to being healthy and/or wealthy.
I have known a number of very ill people (some terminally so) that were still very optimistic, and a lot of outgoing optimistic people that were quite poor...
Obviously being wealthy means you have treatment options the average person does not have access to, but this study is saying you may have a better base to start with regardless if you are optimistic (which is true).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
let's explore the space:
Living longer + larger than average social network = vastly disproportionate experience of friend loss.
Living longer + optimism = Yeah! joy for me of living in this nursing home for another 20 years!
Living longer + outgoing = Talking to visitors that aren't there to see you. Year after year and leaving a disproportionate impression
Living longer + easygoing = I don't care what you think whippersnapper your going to be my single serving friend while you visit your dialysis Alzheimers grandpa.
Yup, pretty much your proving the study.
This doesn't necessarily mean that being easy going increases your health... it might just mean that easy going people are less likely to piss off homicidal maniacs!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Sounds like the life of these people might be fun too. A long and fun life, this is not fair !
Well, if this is the case....
How come I ain't dead yet? ;-)
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
The best opportunities go to those born into strong big families. This is the large social network the study is talking about.
This isn't necessarily a gene because there isn't a specific gene we can identify which determines the size of someones social network, it's more some people are in the lucky sperm club and some are not.
If you're born into a big wealthy family you'll likely have a large social network, be more outgoing, etc simply because you were born into the environment which rewards that. If you're born into a small poor family none of those traits will be as beneficial. Being funny for instance wont help you if you don't have the large social network to begin with. Being outgoing wont help you if you've got fewer people to be outgoing with. There are too many variables here to conclude genes rather than environment and "luck" determine longevity in this instance.
We make our own fun and we make our own hell - at least a lot of the time. I've long been interested in those quiet old white-haired who have a twinkle in their eye and yet generally had really hard lives. My mother ran old-folks homes so I actually lived in three retirement homes as I was growing up - it taught me that old people are often very interesting if you slow down and listen. Some of them have the wickedest sense of humour!
One thing I did notice was that the cheerful outnumbered the curmudgeons by a large margin and the morose were simply not reprsented at all - at least that I can remember.
Another thing I noticed was that those who talked about nowadays did seem to live longer than those who talked about when they were young. It's hard to be sure on that though because even though the turnover was high we never stayed more than a few years at any one place
The greatest thing that the experience taught me though was to make sure that I never end up in a retirement home. They are incredibly restrictive and stultifying places which are run to suit the board first (inevitably populated entirely by the curmudgeonly), the staff second, and the old a very, very distant third.
I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
No matter my easygoing, optimistic, humorous internal state -- I have a disability whereby I look cranky and/or crazy. I get social crapola by the ton. People treat me like crap. I AM easygoing optimistic and humorous. Will I live long and prosper...or die young?? This study is irritating.
On my father's side of the family (which I strongly inherited from) , we are Swedish, and we (and I) are all introverted, pessimistic, pensive, humorless, and we don't give a crap about having a "social network".
We tend to live (pretty healthily) to 95 - 98 years old, if the generation preceding me is any guide.
I guess they needed to spend their grant money publishing something...
I think I'll worry about this and give myself a heart attack. That's the proper way to respond to these studies, right?
People who are outgoing, optimistic, easygoing, and have a good sense of humor and a large social network are likely to live longer than others who don't possess these personality traits,
Ugh. I'd rather die a few years earlier than live a vapid existence centered around exchanging banalities with other ape-descendants in meatspace. Fuck that noise.
Generally people who have a more positive outlook on life are significantly less prone to stress. This could be a very good reason for why they live longer, as life is somewhat less strenuous for their heart.
I think it would have been useful if to measure the average stress levels of people involved in this study. I think you may very well find a connection that is less gene-related.
We know that stress reduces lifespan.
The fact is these easygoing, unproductive slackers cause a lot of stress for the rest of the population because we're always fixing what they screwed up or just plain blew off. Obviously we need to kill them off in self defense.
A journalist interviews the oldest man in town:
"How did you manage to reach such an old age? What's your secret?"
"Oh, it's just that I don't argue anymore"
"Come on, you can't tell us it's so simple. Please tell us the truth"
"Well, then it must be for some other reason as you say".
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
Does this mean I'm going to die soon?
Mod me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Once again as with so many other funded studies, they could have just asked me. Like duh.
So the angry hobo that stands in traffic screaming at cars will die sooner? Now if we could somehow correlate his behaviour with his genes while taking social factors into account as well.