This surprising personality trait could make you live longer
Ever been called a hypochondriac? Well, that may not be such a bad thing, if this new study is to be believed. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh have found that hypochondriacs tend to live longer than their calmer counterparts.
Despite finding that people with neuroticism (higher levels of anxiety) had a higher mortality rate, those that rated their health the poorest (indicating hypochondria) actually lived longer. It’s believed this is due to hypochondriacs paying more attention to their health and medical advice.
“Our findings are important because they suggest that being high in neuroticism may sometimes have a protective effect, perhaps by making people more vigilant about their health,” said lead author Professor Catharine Gale.
The study examined UK Biobank data from over 500,000 people between the ages of 27 and 73 and researchers hypothesised the relationship between neuroticism and mortality rate may depend on how healthy people consider themselves to be.
“We found that this protective effect was only present in people who rated their health as fair or poor,” Professor Gale explained. “We also found that people who scored highly on one aspect of neuroticism related to worry and vulnerability had a reduced risk of death regardless of how they rated their health.”