optimism and cheerfulness) have shown mixed associations with longevity (33–35). Generally, there appears to be no association between Openness to Experience and longevity (25, 26, 32), but on a more specific level, higher scores on the facets Openness to Feelings and Openness to Actions were found to predict survival in patients with coronary artery disease (36). The evidence is also mixed for Agreeableness (25, 26, 30, 32, 37), but fairly consistent in suggesting that high Conscientiousness is linked to lower mortality risk (25, 26, 31–33). The mixed findings in the literature are in part explained by differences in personality measures, differences in analytic choices, differences in socioeconomic and health status across samples, and by inadequate statistical power due to small samples, short follow-up periods, and limited proportion of deaths.
