Though cheerfulness has always claimed to be the number one personality leading to a greater longevity, with a second thought, prudent and persistent are very reasonable to be the determining factors for achieving longevity. The most obvious reason is that prudent people are more conscious to be healthy so that they engage fewer risky activities and tend to choose healthier situation and relationship. A surprising reason mentioned in the chapter is that some people are biologically predisposed to be more conscientious and healthier, which means they are biologically less prone to tons of disease. For example, they tend to have higher levels of serotonin; therefore, they tend to be less impulsive and more capable to regulate their life. That being said, it’s also mentioned that neurotransmitter levels can change over time.
From this chapter, I could see how the study was down with critical self-evaluation. Several doubtful points about the study were discussed. For example, the researchers tried to make information from early and mid-twentieth century validate for predicting longevity into the first century by creating new valid and modern personality tests. Moreover, to be sure of conscientiousness is important to modern people just as it is important to Dr. Terman’s subjects, the researchers used meta-analysis to combine results of many studies into a single summary. It’s very inspiring to see how researchers were strict about their work and how many impossible-solving problems were taken care of through statistical analyses.
Finally, when reading that consciousness, detail oriented, persistent, are best predictors of longevity, I thought it would be interesting to see whether accountants, who seem have these qualities, enjoy a longer life span on average.