People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
1–10 of 193 posts
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#2For such studies, a randomized control trial should be done. For half the group, present the research on optimism and encourage them to be optimistic. For the other half, do nothing. I predict that telling people to be optimistic will not be effective.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#3For such studies, a randomized control trial should be done. For half the group, present the research on optimism and encourage them to be optimistic. For the other half, do nothing. I predict that telling people to be optimistic will not be effective.
I’d love to see a different question answered: is there an inverse correlation to be drawn between optimism and stress levels. From my experience significant stress can be just as debilitating as physical ailments and I find that optimists seem to handle stressful situations with more apparent ease than others.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#4For such studies, a randomized control trial should be done. For half the group, present the research on optimism and encourage them to be optimistic. For the other half, do nothing. I predict that telling people to be optimistic will not be effective.
> I predict that telling people to be optimistic will not be effective.
I think that it's amusing how the scientific response (which I shared) to this finding in favour of optimism is pessimism.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#5[deleted]
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#6When I read the tile and skimmed through the article, I thought: define pessimism.
I mean, I consider myself pessimistic, but what do THEY who designed the study consider pessimistic. I tend to find the fault in things, see how they are wrong, or in general anticipate some negativity that most people will overlook. It's literally what makes me good at my job.
So I clicked through to the study. Which mentioned it used the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) to test for pessimism.
So I looked up the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) and found what questions and answers they consider pessimistic.
These are questions a 'pessimist' is supposed to answer as being 'very true':
3. If something can go wrong for me, it will. (R)
7. I hardly ever expect things to go my way. (R)
Welp I can't say these are views of pessimists. More of someone depressed or someone who has been beaten down in life.
I admire what they are trying to do, but I'm not sure this study really is proving anything until there is a clear measure of someone's pessimism. And for that we need I think better testing for someone's natural inclinations toward belief and skepticism. I've always associated skepticism as highly correlated to pessimism (seeing why not) and a tendency to believe in something at first sight as highly correlated with 'positivism' (seeing why yes).
Objectively speaking, of the 7,000,000,000 people in the world, some percentage will have objectively way less things 'go their way' then for others. It's simply how distributions work. So for someone like that to answer question 7 affirmatively, they might not be pessimistic, just someone who has objectively had a shitty life. And for someone like that, well, less life expectancy should be expected. I know I've been lucky in life and would answer 7 and 3 as absolutely no despite myself considering myself a pessimist (and I've been called that enough to suspect others view me as such too)
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#7When I read the tile and skimmed through the article, I thought: define pessimism. I mean, I consider myself pessimistic, but what do THEY who designed the study consider pessimistic. I tend to find the fault in things, see how they are wrong, or in general anticipate some negativity that most people will overlook. It's literally what makes me good at my job. So I clicked through to the study. Which mentioned it used…
> More of someone depressed or someone who has been beaten down in life.
Who accurately recognizes that they are going to be killed before people that have a tendency to have things go their way.
Sounds like we should just rename the study then worry about how they define pessimism!
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#8For such studies, a randomized control trial should be done. For half the group, present the research on optimism and encourage them to be optimistic. For the other half, do nothing. I predict that telling people to be optimistic will not be effective.
I’d love to see a different question answered: is there an inverse correlation to be drawn between optimism and stress levels. From my experience significant stress can be just as debilitating as physical ailments and I find that optimists seem to handle stressful situations with more apparent ease than others.
That’s where my train of thought was going.
Less optimistic, more stress, lower life expectancy.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#9All I can hope for is a quick death then
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#10When I read the tile and skimmed through the article, I thought: define pessimism. I mean, I consider myself pessimistic, but what do THEY who designed the study consider pessimistic. I tend to find the fault in things, see how they are wrong, or in general anticipate some negativity that most people will overlook. It's literally what makes me good at my job. So I clicked through to the study. Which mentioned it used…
I feel like usually the pessimistic complaining posts like this in hackernews are much more negative. It feels like there's a lot of hesitancy in this one and it's much more accepting/positive because you're afraid of being pessimistic because of the article :P
(Mostly just being cheeky. It's not fair to judge people on the internet when you don't know them)