Optimists May Live Longer

According to a US study, optimists are more likely to live longer than those who have a more negative approach to life. The theory is that optimists may find it easier to control emotions and so be protected from the effects of stress.

A recent study spanning thousands of people and three decades, confirmed optimists live longer. Optimistic people live as much as 15% longer than pessimists. Scientists combined data from two large, long-term studies: one including 69,744 women and another of 1,429 men, all of whom completed questionnaires that assessed their feelings about the future. After controlling for health conditions, behaviors, like diet and exercise and other demographic information, the scientists showed that the most optimistic women (top 25%) lived an average of 14.9% longer than their more pessimistic peers.
For the men, the most optimistic of the bunch lived 10.9% longer than their peers, on average. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The most optimistic women were also 1.5 times more likely to reach 85 years old than the least optimistic women, whereas the most optimistic men were 1.7 times more likely to make it to that age.

Prof Bruce Hood, chair of developmental psychology in society at the University of Bristol runs a course called "the science of happiness". He said the study supported existing evidence of the benefits of positive thinking. He added: "I think that one causal mechanism could be that optimists cope better with stress, and this could be by avoiding rumination about negative life events.