Your Friends May Predict How Long You Will Live

How long will you live? Apparently your friends can tell. Scientists have found that friends may be able to predict how long someone will live across 75 years, and that close friends are usually better at recognizing the traits that will determine longevity.

"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," said Joshua Jackson, one of the researchers, in a news release. "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."

A person's personality traits can have a major impact on health. Depression and anger, as examples, have been linked to an increased risk of various diseases and health concerns. That's why scientists decided to see whether friends could accurately predict the lifespan of their peers.

The researchers used extensive data on participant personality traits, both self-reported and as reported by close friends, including bridesmaids and groomsmen in the study participants' wedding parties. Then, using information from previous follow-up studies and search of death certificates, the scientists documented dates of death for most of the study participants. In the end, they found that peer ratings of personality traits were stronger predictors of mortality risk than self-ratings.

"There are two potential reasons for the superiority of peer ratings over self ratings," said Jackson. "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."

What's more interesting is that men's self-ratings of personality traits were more accurate than women's. That said, this could be a function of the era in which the study began, since societal expectations were different then and fewer women worked outside the home.

The findings are published in the journal Psychological Science.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).