According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, people turning an age ending in 9 are more likely to take up positive habits, cheat on their mates, and even be more apt to commit suicide. Intense.

From The Washington Post:

"Years 30, 40, 50, they're psychologically consequential," Hal Hershfield, a psychologist at the University of California at Los Angeles and co-author of the study, told The Washington Post in an interview. "They seem big, they seem looming and they seem more important to us than the others. They make us step back and think about how things have been going up until then and how we want them to go moving forward."

So maybe just steer clear of making big decisions on your niner birthdays and everything will be OK? Yes, excellent idea. On your next niner birthday, we're all just gonna eat extra cake, hug our loved ones, and then eat some more cake. Deal? Deal!

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Laura Beck
Laura Beck is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan.com — her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Jezebel, and the Village Voice.