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How to Live Forever
In a study published by the Journal of Gerontology, Robert Wilson, at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, looked at 900 Catholic clergy members. He and his team assessed them according to the “Big 5” traits and followed them over the course of five years. Wilson found that the risk of death doubled in those with a neuroticism score in the top 10 percent. In other words, particularly neurotic clergymen and women were nearly twice as likely to die during the period in which Wilson followed them.
The neurotic life is, by definition, highly stressful. For physiological reasons, stress can be extremely damaging. It hinders the immune system, causes insomnia, and speeds the atrophy of the brain, to name a few. Neurotic people might also be less popular, adding further stress to an inherently stressful existence. From a physiological point of view, stress is stress.
But perhaps the most surprising finding of Dr. Friedman’s—who was working in California, of all places—was the curious relationship between cheerfulness and longevity. Defining cheerfulness as optimism plus a sense of humor, Friedman found his cheerful subjects lived relatively shorter lives in comparison to subjects with less sunny outlooks.
Why would this be? For one thing, Friedman speculates, optimists are less likely to react with appropriate caution to troubling health symptoms, assuming the best and moving heedlessly along. For another, the optimist’s worldview might capsize him in the face of life’s more difficult moments—optimists just don’t account for the usual grim possibilities.
So how do we explain Allingham’s super-human longevity? It probably wasn’t his drinking and smoking. Friedman goes on, “We found that the cheerful Terman children grew up to drink more alcohol and smoke more cigarettes.” It’s what he calls “illusory optimism”—a feeling that they’ll circumvent life’s harsh realities.
In that sense, it appears Allingham not only defied his statistical life span, but longevity science as well.
Casey Schwartz is a graduate of Brown University. She's working on a book about the brain world.
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Casey Schwartz is a graduate of Brown University and has a Masters Degree in psychodynamic neuroscience from University College London. She has previously written for The New York Sun and ABC News. Currently, she's working on a book about the brain world.
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Casey Schwartz is a graduate of Brown University and has a Masters Degree in psychodynamic neuroscience from University College London. She has previously written for The New York Sun and ABC News. Currently, she's working on a book about the brain world.
ThinkAgain
Expect the best but be prepared for the worst.
UnderTheHedgeWeGo
What is the meaning "Dr. Friedman's-who was working in California, of all places"? Did we here in the "Golden State" leave our collective zippers down? Is there something you haven't been telling us?
JohnnyAces
I'm screwed.
crngndmhm
Expect the worst hope for the best
deegeezee
interesting article.
but casey, get a new headshot that doesn't look like a facebook party pic after you cropped out your ex.
exploora
I guess preparing for an early grave makes you too busy to die.
Artist50
Lord, I don't want to live too long! I come from a long line of crazy old women. They live into their 90's and they lose their minds. I can feel mine slipping already.
TREESKE
I'm glad not to be the only one to feel this way!
TREESKE
Also, you made my day. Gave me a good laugh!
namedujour
Oh God, me too. Furthermore, my mother once said to me, "Never get old." Watching her hitting that cab driver with her cane, it seemed like good advice.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
mredder4
So I can look forward to more years of miserable life? That's almost enough to make me want to be cheerful out of self-spite.
kcaldaba
The trouble with being an optimist is that you're never pleasantly surprised.
shoabear
Good article.
I agree with deegeezee though about the head shot. It doesn't look appropriate. I wasn't gonna say anything but it was the first thing I noticed. It def looks like a facebook party shot or somethin. Where's your cosmo?
Bandersnatch
I find it interesting that Friedman's explanation of why cheerful people die younger is somewhat critical of the cheerful- they are "illusory optimists" who think they can avoid life's harsh realities, and thus do not foresee problems or fall apart altogether when those realities present themselves. There's an inherent value judgment here that isn't being addressed- the notion that it is better or even more admirable to live a long, unhappy life than a shorter, cheerier one, and that if cheerful people die younger, it must be because they are making some kind of mistake.
This assumption ignores the underlying matter that regardless of when cheerful people die, they presumably lead happier lives than the neurotics who outlive them. Perhaps the question shouldn't be what cheerful people are doing wrong that's making them die younger, but rather what neurotic people are doing wrong that is making them lead long, unhappy lives rather than slightly shorter, much happier ones.
The point about smoking and drink at the end of the article is particularly illustrative. Friedman characterizes such vices among the cheerful as evidence of "illusory optimism." But why does he assume that cheerful people believe they will avoid the consequences of smoking and drinking? Perhaps they simply accept of the risks, and prefer whatever benefit they get from smoking and drinking to the benefit they would get from avoiding such activities. I don't get why this behavior is being characterized as a product of self deception rather than rational decision making, when either interpretation is equally supportable.
Heck, maybe cheery people don't live as long because they just don't fear death as much as neurotic people. Given that we all die anyway, I don't see why we should value necessarily longevity over quality of life. Which is probably why I'm a cheerful smoker and drinker, and totally alright with checking out a bit earlier than some neurotic hypochondriac who clings to life at all costs without ever doing much to make it particularly worth living.
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