Pessimism About the Future May Lead to Longer, Healthier Life

Every time I see something new in medicine it seems that it is another flip flop on the issue. Well, here is another one; and good news for us pessimists.

SOURCE

Feb. 27, 2013 — Older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

Because a darker outlook on the future is often more realistic, older adults' predictions of their future satisfaction may be more accurate, according to the study. In contrast, the youngest group had the sunniest outlook while the middle-aged adults made the most accurate predictions, but became more pessimistic over time.

"Unexpectedly, we also found that stable and good health and income were associated with expecting a greater decline compared with those in poor health or with low incomes," Lang said. "Moreover, we found that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability."

Well this is perfect news for the membership of ATS. Let's face it, 90% of us wouldn't be surprised if some catastrophe happened tomorrow. Myself included.

reply to post by happykat39


I really don't believe any of this, and I don't think this thread will go anywhere either. Or am I being too pessimistic?

I will go back to just plain curmudgeonly

And open minded people tend to be more prone to depression... Who'd a thought.

reply to post by happykat39


It makes perfect sense:

Link
Lang and colleagues hypothesized that people who were gloomy about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who anticipated a rosy future.

"Perceiving a dark future may foster positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions," authors wrote.

Link
"We found that from early to late adulthood, individuals adapt their anticipations of future life satisfaction from optimistic, to accurate to pessimistic," the authors concluded. "Pessimistic accuracy appears to be linked with preserved functional health and better chances to survive."

It makes sense to me that Pessimistic people are less likely to take risks than optimists that think that everything will always work out in their favor and therefore with less risks there is a greater chance of survive and a higher chance of being accurate.

It feels good to imagine the worse, and then be relieved that it doesn't happen,
rather than imagine the best happening and being disappointed when it doesn't.

At least in my opinion...

This is why gratitude is important too, the next time you complain about waiting in line to purchase your groceries, be happy that you HAVE groceries to purchase and that there isn't a shortage on food.

I think it is best to be neutral in thought.

Bet there is no tax payer funded scientific study on that.

Woohoo! I'm gonna be IMMORTAL!

Wait. Is that optimism? I may be digging my own grave here.

reply to post by magma


Actually the study mentioned that. It talked about how we are born optimistic and normally we'll grow into being realistic/neutral but over time it becomes pessimistic.

Still doesn't change the fact that optimists are more likely to take risks (endanger their lives) than pessimist (who are cautious looking for the worse)

I can totally see how pessimists about the future are more self-critical and motivated to take precautions for necessities to life like:

1 - Don't jump off the cliff just because other (disney) lemmings are
2 -Dont waste food, money, resources

Without precaution and economy, we might end up like, well, America ie the big fat greedy bully in the schoolyard that's likely to pick a fight with the wrong kid one day (and get shot)