Innovative research led by the University of Limerick has revealed for the first time that the immune system directly links personality to the risk of long-term death.
The study sheds new light on why more sensible people tend to live longer.
Results from the new international study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity has previously found that the immune system plays an unknown role in the link between personality traits and long-term risk of death.
“Personality is known to be associated with long-term risk of death, it is a redesigned finding that has been observed across a number of research studies internationally,” the study’s Chief Investigator explained. Dr Páraic Ó Súilleabháin, from the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Health Research at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
“The urgent question is ‘how’. We wanted to find out if a biological pathway like our immune system can explain why this is happening.
“Our personality is very important throughout our lives, from the early stages of our development, to the accumulation of influence in how we think, feel, and behave over our lives, and in the years before our death. It is also becoming increasingly apparent. how important personality is to our long-term and long-term health.
For example, it has been shown that people who score lower on the personality trait of conscience (tendency to be accountable, organized and capable of self-control) may be at 40% greater risk of death in the future. compared to their top peers. It is not clear how this could happen, and importantly, what biological pathway may be responsible for this connection, “said Dr O’Sullivan.
Led by Dr. O’Sullivan, this study was conducted by a team of colleagues from the Department of Psychology at UL, the Department of Psychology at the University of West Virginia, the Department of Psychology at Humboldt University Berlin, and the College of Psychology. Medicine at Florida State University.
The researchers wanted to find out if two biological markers that are at the heart of the immune system explain why personality traits are associated with a risk of long-term mortality. In particular, they wanted to test whether interleukin-6 and c-reactive proteins that are known to play an important role in age-related morbidity could explain how our personality traits are related to how long and we are alive. The study drew on data from a Midlife Longevity Study in the United States conducted on 957 adults surveyed over a 14-year period.
We found that part of the reason people with a higher score on conscience personality traits is that they live longer as a result of their immune system, mainly due to lower levels of signaling. known as interleukin-6. There seem to be more biological methods that have not yet been discovered that will give a clearer picture of the different ways in which our personalities are so essential to our long-term health.
These findings are very important and indicate for the first time that a basic biological signal directly links personality to the risk of long-term mortality. By reproducing, these decisions enable future interventions to increase our longevity and health over a lifetime. “
Dr O’Sullivan, Department of Psychology, UL
Source:
Magazine Reference:
O’Sullivan, PS, et al. (2021) Personality pathways to mortality: Interleukin-6 links conscience to risk of mortality. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2021.01.032.