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People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

npr.org

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Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#41

Post by ummonk »

neonate wrote: post #28
tehjoker wrote: post #21

Aren't people that are richer, with the exception of those who achieve existential angst through lack of meaning, more optimistic? :P If you can't get medical care, I imagine you're both more likely to die and pretty pessimistic about the state of the world. It's easy to be optimistic when you have a feeling of control over your circumstances.

That finding was independent of other factors thought to influence life's length — such as "socioeconomic status, health conditions, depression, social integration, and health behaviors"

It's a little weird to see a study about the effects of optimism control for depression...

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#42

Post by craftinator »

aytekin wrote: post #38

More likely: "People who live 85 or more have more of the good things like health and safe environment which also makes them optimistic."

You beat me to this by 5 minutes. It seems pretty obvious that the path of causation tends in this direction, rather than the other. And even if there is a signal going the other direction, extracting it from the noise caused by "people who have health and financial stability" seems impossible, unless the sample group were all of people who have lived to at least 85 without having these traits.

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#43

Post by stkdump »

ummonk wrote: post #41
neonate wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That finding was independent of other factors thought to influence life's length — such as "socioeconomic status, health conditions, depression, social integration, and health behaviors"

It's a little weird to see a study about the effects of optimism control for depression...

Only if you think that depression is a lack of optimism.

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#44

Post by mattsfrey »

A lot of cynicism in the comments here, but having an optimistic outlook has been a boon throughout history in almost all accounts. It's definitely harder today with all of the mass media and the constant negativity, but in my opinion it's hard to argue with the logic.. positive energy yields positive results.. at least more so than negative energy

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#46

Post by blihp »

JackPoach wrote: post #34

"The study included 69,744 women and 1,429 men." Does this mean it's much easier to find optimistic women than men?

Probably easier to find women still alive at that age. (Here in the U.S. at least, women tend to outlive men by ~5 years)

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#47

Post by taneq »

300bps wrote: post #16

About three years ago I read someone on here recommend the book, “Learned Optimism”. They said it was life changing. I read it, did the work, and it is life changing. People with a pessimistic outlook are much less happy than people with an optimistic outlook. The book teaches you how each type thinks (for example, optimists think everything good that happens to them is personal and permanent and every bad thing that…

Sounds like "Cognitive Dissonance for Fun and Profit."

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#49

Post by adventskalender »

blihp wrote: post #46
JackPoach wrote: post #34

"The study included 69,744 women and 1,429 men." Does this mean it's much easier to find optimistic women than men?

Probably easier to find women still alive at that age. (Here in the U.S. at least, women tend to outlive men by ~5 years)

If women are more optimistic than men, then that alone could be sufficient to yield the results of the study (correlation).

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#50

Post by kristiandupont »

Yesterday, my wife stumbled upon a "20 pieces of good news" article and read it to me. Things like initiatives being taken to save the bees etc. At first I thought it was a bit silly but I realized that hearing all those good things did something wonderful: it made me feel quite optimistic on behalf of the world, which I can't say I have in a while (in spite of my own life going quite well).

Keeping informed is the duty of a citizen in a democracy and I don't want to live in a rose colored bubble but I do think I am going to try and curate my news harder. For now, I started following The Good News Network and The Constructive Institute on Twitter and I will try and look for other similar sources.

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