Optimism May Make for a Longer Life
 (NY, Reuters Health, 11/1/04)

Dr. Erik J. Giltay of the Psychiatric Center GGZ Delfland in Delft, Netherlands, and associates, had 941 Dutch seniors complete a survey that contained a scale that rated their tendency toward optimism or pessimism. The investigators divided the participants into four groups based on their scores. After an average of nine years follow-up, the researchers found that subjects with negative dispositions, who tended to believe that bad things would happen, were likelier to die sooner than those with optimistic outlooks. The scientists speculate that several explanations may account for the difference in fatality rates, including the possibilities that pessimists may suffer from hidden medical conditions and/or that optimists may be better at coping and/or that a positive mental attitude may benefit the immune system.

(Archives of General Psychiatry, November 2004)