It is often said that a person should remain optimistic and take everything positively. The healthy body cannot be achieved without a healthy mind. Now a study adds to that by stating that people who live longest tend to be those who look on the bright side of life. The study was part of the Longevity Genes Project that was investigating more than 500 Ashkenazi Jews over the age of 95 and 700 of their offspring. After analyzing over 243 centenarians the researchers came to the conclusion and found that most of them were far from being mean-spirited and world-weary. They were cheerful, outgoing and sociable.

The researchers now believe that positive personality traits hold the key to the long life. These traits might be genetically based which is why living for a long time and positivity towards life are both associated.

Lead author of the study, Nir Barzilai, director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Institute for Aging Research in New York, said, “When I started working with centenarians, I thought we'd find that they survived so long in part because they were mean and ornery. But we found qualities that clearly reflect a positive attitude towards life”. He added that most of these people considered laughter an important part of life and had a large social network.