Longevity Test

The Longevity Test is a research-informed self-report profile based on psychometric methodology and relevant psychological research. The sections below summarize the academic background and explain how each result pattern should be read.

Academic Background

Based on the research of Govind Persad, associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, this profile summarizes the tested patterns as self-report facets rather than a diagnosis or formal assessment.

Immortalist Rescue

Immortalist Rescue is the tendency to treat death and aging as problems society should fight. High scorers see life extension, cryonics, and medical rescue as urgent moral projects worth serious resources. Low scorers are more likely to see radical extension as speculative, secondary, or not worth displacing other social needs.

Death Acceptance

Death Acceptance is comfort with finitude and the idea that a life can be complete without being extended. High scorers emphasize meaning, generational turnover, and making peace with mortality as part of ethical life. Low scorers feel more drawn toward escape routes, extra time, or technologies that keep death from being final.

Deservingness Gate

Deservingness Gate is the tendency to ask who has earned scarce rescue. High scorers give more weight to responsibility, contribution, dependents, or past harm when allocating life-extending care, because rescue feels like a moral priority judgment. Low scorers prefer equal access even when a person has made harmful or irresponsible choices.

Dangerous Mercy

Dangerous Mercy is willingness to preserve life even when the person saved may create risk. High scorers treat rescue as a principle that can outweigh fear, reputation, or social disruption, especially when refusing care feels too final. Low scorers draw firmer limits when saving someone could endanger others.

Scarcity Triage

Scarcity Triage is comfort using structured rules when life-saving resources are limited. High scorers accept prioritizing expected outcomes, life-years saved, or formal triage protocols because scarcity demands a rule before emotion takes over. Low scorers resist turning anyone away and prefer more equal, personal, or first-come approaches.

Limitations

The Longevity Test is designed for self-understanding and comparison between result patterns. It should not be treated as a clinical, educational, or employment assessment.

References

• Persad, G., Wertheimer, A., & Emanuel, E. J. (2009). Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions. The Lancet, 373(9661), 423-431.
• Machado, R. d. S., Oriá, M. O. B., Fernandes, M. A., Gouveia, M. T. d. O., & Silva, G. R. F. d. (2019). TRANSLATION AND CULTURAL ADAPTATION OF DEATH ATTITUDE PROFILE REVISED (DAP-R) FOR USE IN BRAZIL. Texto & Contexto - Enfermagem, 28.
• SHAW, D. (2009). CRYOETHICS: SEEKING LIFE AFTER DEATH. Bioethics, 23(9), 515-521.
• Galiatsatos, P., Kachalia, A., Belcher, H. M. E., Hughes, M. T., Kahn, J., Rushton, C. H., Suarez, J. I., Biddison, L. D., & Golden, S. H. (2020). Health equity and distributive justice considerations in critical care resource allocation. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 8(8), 758-760.