Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Scottish Primate Research Group, United Kingdom; Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
William D Hopkins
Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States; Division of Developmental and Cognitive Neurosciences, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, United States
Elizabeth S Herrelko
National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, United States; Psychology Division, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
Miho Inoue-Murayama
Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan; Wildlife Genome Collaborative Research Group, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
Tetsuro Matsuzawa
Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan; Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan; Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Japan
James E King
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
Stephen R Ross
Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, United States
Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Scottish Primate Research Group, United Kingdom
Life history strategies for optimizing individual fitness fall on a spectrum between maximizing reproductive efforts and maintaining physical health over time. Strategies across this spectrum are viable and different suites of personality traits evolved to support these strategies. Using data from 538 captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) we tested whether any of the dimensions of chimpanzee personality – agreeableness, conscientiousness, dominance, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness – were associated with longevity, an attribute of slow life history strategies that is especially important in primates given their relatively long lives. We found that higher agreeableness was related to longevity in males, with weaker evidence suggesting that higher openness is related to longer life in females. Our results link the literature on human and nonhuman primate survival and suggest that, for males, evolution has favored the protective effects of low aggression and high quality social bonds.