Conscientiousness and life expectancy

A review of 20 studies involving more than 8,900 participants in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan and Sweden looked into the links between personality and life expectancy. The review found that people who scored highly on levels of conscientiousness tended to live between two and four years longer than people who had low scores for conscientiousness. The influence of contientiousness was found to be as large, or larger, than many other factors affecting longevity such as socio-economic status. Within conscientiousness the sub-factors that were particularly associated with increased life expectancy were ambition and self-discipline with responsibility and self-control being less important.

Kern, Margaret L., Friedman, Howard S. - Do conscientious individuals live longer? A quantitative review Health Psychology 2008, 27(5), 505-512