Being sociable to be “happier” has been tested as only a trivial contributor to greater longevity in the sense that healthy social ties are important to people’s health. Actually, undiscriminated sociability is more likely to expose people to peer pressure that leads to unhealthy behaviors, such as drinking or smoking. Several research have shown that extroverted people find the rewards of an alcohol- or tobacco-induced buzz inherently more appealing. The another kind of sociability, emotional sociability, was mentioned. Individual, with affective communication skills, who are selective about people they are socialize with are able to minimized the risky situations and enjoy a sociable longevity.
It’s very inspiring that being an introvert doesn’t lead to a lonely shorter longevity. In addition, this chapter also mentioned, as a sociable individual, how to avoid risks against longevity and enjoy healthy relationship. Next time, before I try to push myself into some parties to remain popular, I’ll be more determined and confident to ask myself: wait a minute, do you really want or need to go?
In this chapter, the author mentioned that they reason why they chose to study longevity was that the length of life is the single best measure of health. It made a lot sense to me so that I believed results from the longevity project are not just helpful for a greater length of life but a healthier one with less suffering.
Being an introvert myself, I also found solace in that being an introvert is not a significantly detrimental factor to my health. While longevity is not exactly my end goal in life, I hope to make the time I do have as healthy as possible and I think it’s fascinating to see that maintaining good health does not limit one into certain personality or set of standardised traits.