RESEARCH ARTICLE Do personality characteristics predict longevity? Findings from the Tokyo Centenarian Study

Abstract To explore whether personality influences longevity we examined the personality characteristics of centenarians. We developed a new method that com-pares an actual personality test score for centenarians with a predicted test score for a 100-year-old, calculated from younger controls. The participants consisted of 70 cognitively intact Japanese centenarians aged 100– 106 years and 1812 elderly people aged 60–84 years, all residents of Tokyo. The NEO five factor inventory (NEO-FFI) was used to assess the “big five ” personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeable-ness, and conscientiousness. The results showed higher openness in both male and female centenarians, and higher conscientiousness and extraversion in female centenarians, as compared to controls. These result