If you want to live to a hundred, you’d better lighten up. Children of centenarians—who usually inherit both longevity and personality traits from their parents—are on average more outgoing, agreeable, and less neurotic, according to a new study.
That’s because being affable and more social confers health benefits, according to lead study author Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Center.
It may be that less neurotic people are better able to manage or regulate stressful situations than the highly neurotic, Perls said.
“We’ve seen centenarians go through huge amounts of stress, and time and time again they’ve shown us how … it doesn’t get to them.”


If you want to live to a hundred, you’d better lighten up. Children of centenarians—who usually inherit both longevity and personality traits from their parents—are on average more outgoing, agreeable, and less neurotic, according to a new study.








