It has been established which character trait causes earlier aging and premature death

“Sometimes pathologists see a healthy body – a person dies simply because he is bored with life”

Experts from Columbia University in the USA conducted a study in which they found out the most favorable human character traits for longevity, as well as the most undesirable ones. MK asked the psychologist to comment on the results obtained by overseas colleagues.

The study surveyed more than 2,000 people over 82 years of age. They were asked to characterize themselves from the point of view of temperament (remember, there are four of them – phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic and sanguine), and also to describe their character in a few words.

The results were unexpected. Among the centenarians there were few cheerful sanguine people, but many melancholic people prone to reflection. Psychologists have also counted very few phlegmatic people, people who are rather indifferent to the world around them, and whom nothing can piss them off.

We asked psychologist and psychotherapist Oleg Shevchenko to comment on these results.

“They seem paradoxical only at first glance,” explains Shevchenko. – It would seem that phlegmatic people are very balanced people and this should have a positive effect on their health and, accordingly, longevity. However, very often such people are indifferent to the life around them, it doesn’t touch them much, and passivity and lack of courage quickly ages them and leads them to the grave. Pathologists say that sometimes during an autopsy they see an absolutely healthy organism – a person dies simply because he is bored with life.

It’s a different story with cheerful epicureans – they very painfully endure aging, changes in health, and the inability to lead their former wild life. They become anxious, panic – all this cannot but affect their health, body condition and appearance.

But for melancholic people, negative emotions often go into reflection and observation; they often write poetry, read a lot, love to observe nature and treat everything that happens philosophically, observing their own life as if from the outside. It’s not surprising that this way of looking at things preserves the nervous system and, as a result, health.