A new study has found how our approach towards life is linked to the number of years one lives. According to QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute study, those having a pessimistic attitude towards life are at a greater risk of dying earlier. However, the scientists also found that being an optimist did not extend life expectancy.
The lead researcher, Dr John Whitfield from QIMR Berghofer’s Genetic Epidemiology group, said study participants who were strongly pessimistic about the future and scored higher on pessimism in a questionnaire were likely to die on average two years earlier than those with low scores.
“We found people who were strongly pessimistic about the future were more likely to die earlier from cardiovascular diseases and other causes of death, but not from cancer. Optimism scores, on the other hand, did not show a significant relationship with death, either positive or negative,” Dr Whitfield said.
“Less than nine per cent of respondents identified as being strongly pessimistic. There were no significant differences in optimism or pessimism between men and women. On average, an individual’s level of either optimism or pessimism increased with age. We also found depression did not appear to account for the association between pessimism and mortality,” the Dr added.
Researchers involved in the study had collected data of almost 3,000 participants who completed the Life Orientation Test as part of a broader questionnaire that looked at the health of people living in Australia aged over 50 between 1993 and 1995.
Participants were asked agree or disagree with a number of positive and negative statements such as, ‘I’m always optimistic about my future’ or ‘If something can go wrong for me, it will’.
These details were cross-checked with the Australian National Death Index in October 2017 to find out how many people had died and their cause of death.
The researchers found that while strong pessimism was linked with earlier death, those who scored highly on the optimism scale did not have greater than average life expectancy.