One Personality Trait Stands Out Among People Who Live To 100

When it comes to aging well, diet, exercise, and social interaction may get most of the attention – but researchers are increasingly finding there’s more to the story.

A study of people living in Sardinia, Italy – one of the world’s so-called ‘Blue Zones‘, where people may be more likely to celebrate their 100th birthday – found that an overlooked factor might be just as important.

The missing piece may be your personality.

That’s because personality influences the way we respond to challenges and engage with the world around us, helping shape the habits and behaviors that keep us active as we age, according to a team led by psychologist Maria Chiara Fastame of the University of Cagliari in Italy.

“These findings suggest that the combination of adaptive personality traits and coping resources promotes a more active lifestyle,” the researchers write in a paper published in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, “providing insights into the mechanisms of successful aging.”

Untangling the role of personality isn’t easy. Healthy aging is shaped by everything from our genes to our environment, making it difficult to isolate the influence of any single factor.

That’s one reason researchers are so interested in the world’s handful of Blue Zones, where people supposedly outlive the global average, and disease rates are reportedly lower.

Fastame and her colleagues focused their efforts on the Sardinian Blue Zone.

They wanted to know whether personality traits were linked to psychological well-being and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) – a measure that captures both physical and mental health.

Previous studies, including those led by Fastame, had found that people living in Blue Zones scored higher on traits such as resilience, psychological well-being, and optimism, but a more detailed investigation into personality had not been conducted.

The researchers predicted that more adaptive personality traits would be associated with better health-related quality of life.

They also expected that people with these traits would have greater psychological well-being and spend more time engaging in hobbies, compared with people not living in the Blue Zone.

They conducted their research on 125 adults aged 71 to 101 – 55 living in the Blue Zone and 70 from a nearby community outside the Blue Zone.

These communities were chosen because their socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds are very similar, and they have access to the same free healthcare provided by the Italian government.

Each participant underwent a series of tests, questionnaires, and interviews to assess their mental and physical health, their lifestyle (including leisure and hobbies), and their Big Five personality traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

One result stood out: people in the Blue Zone did not score significantly higher on health-related quality of life.

What they did have was a much higher level of openness, one of the big five personality traits. That means they showed a higher level of curiosity and interest in learning, as well as a willingness to engage intellectually with new ideas and try new things.

Blue Zone residents also had better coping skills, higher emotional competence, and spent more time engaged in mentally or physically stimulating leisure activities.

Looking at the group as a whole, rather than separating them into Blue Zone and non-Blue Zone groups, some interesting patterns emerged.

People with higher openness tended to have better psychological well-being and spend more time on hobbies.

People with higher conscientiousness tended to report greater life satisfaction and had better coping skills.

People with higher neuroticism, conversely, tended to report lower health-related quality of life.

The researchers don’t think personality plays a direct role in longevity; rather, it might influence how you live your life.

For example, someone who is curious and intellectually engaged with the world might be more likely to seek new experiences, maintain social connections, take up hobbies, stay active, and keep learning.

Related: One Habit May Explain Dick Van Dyke’s Extreme Longevity, Science Suggests

Rather than acting independently of diet or exercise, personality may help shape the behaviors that make healthy aging more likely in the first place.

The study was relatively small and observational, so it cannot show that personality causes healthy aging. Further studies will be needed to ascertain the directionality of these associations, the researchers say.

One of the longest centenarian studies, for instance, has found that intergenerational parenting or personality factors, including a strong sense of purpose, could be a factor in longevity.

But it adds to growing evidence that psychological traits may play a role alongside more familiar factors such as diet, exercise, and social connection.

The findings have been published in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology.

This article was fact-checked by Carly Cassella and edited by Peter Dockrill. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know.