Will interventions targeting conscientiousness improve aging outcomes?

The articles appearing in this special section discuss the role that conscientiousness may play in healthy aging. Growing evidence suggests that conscientious individuals live longer and healthier lives. However, the question remains whether this personality trait can be leveraged to improve long-term health outcomes. We argue that even though it may be possible to design therapeutic interventions that increase conscientiousness, there may be more effective and efficient ways to improve population health. We ask for evidence that a focus on conscientiousness improves behavior change efforts that target specific health-related behaviors or large-scale environmental modification.

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