A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gives evidence for something many of us suspect: people who regularly stress you out — coworkers, roommates, or family members who nag, criticize, or create drama — are associated with faster biological aging. Importantly, the study shows an association, not proof that these people directly cause aging.
Researchers analyzed saliva samples from 2,345 Indiana residents aged 18 to 103 to measure DNA-based markers of biological aging, and combined those measures with surveys about social relationships and health. They found that each additional person participants identified as a “hassler” corresponded to an average 1.5% increase in the rate of biological aging — roughly the equivalent of aging 1.015 biological years for every calendar year. Over a decade, each hassler adds about two extra months of biological aging.
Why might this happen? Chronic social stress activates the same pathways linked to other long-term stressors, such as financial strain and job pressure: greater inflammation, impaired immune function, and higher cardiovascular risk. These processes contribute to molecular damage and declines in bodily systems that biological-aging measures capture; faster biological aging predicts higher risk of chronic disease and mortality.
The study also found patterns in who reports hasslers. Women reported more hasslers than men, and people with poorer health or difficult childhoods tended to report more stressful relationships. Hasslers were often people it’s hard to avoid — colleagues and roommates were commonly named. Annoying family members showed a stronger association with accelerated aging than nonrelated hasslers, while labeling a spouse as a hassler was not significantly linked to faster biological aging.
The takeaway: close, supportive relationships remain important for long-term health, while repeated interactions with draining people are associated with measurable signs of accelerated aging. Reducing social stress where possible, or finding ways to cope with unavoidable hasslers, could matter for long-term wellbeing.