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.