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Optimism: Key to Health, Happiness and Longevity?
 A sense of optimism is pivotal to good health and longevity.
Researchers have found that optimists are much happier, healthier and
live longer than pessimists, and actually even recover better from
illness. Best of all, it cost absolutely nothing to be an optimist.
The scientific study of optimism began with a problem recognized by
psychologist Martin Seligman as he began his graduate training at the
University of Pennsylvania. He noticed that dogs that were being
trained for an experiment in which they heard a tone and were expected
to learn to jump to another box were lying down and “giving up”. When
they heard the tone, they would receive a brief, mild shock and were
expected to escape the shock by jumping into another compartment of
the experimental box, which is usually an easy task for a dog to
learn. He noticed that sometimes the dogs would just respond to the
tone and the shock by simply displaying whimpering, lying down and
“giving up” behaviors.
Martin Seligman hypothesized that during the training the dogs were
"learning to be helpless". What he found was that no matter what they
did, they could not avoid the shock, so they no longer would even
try. He went on to devise an experiment with three groups of dogs:
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The "escapable
shock" dogs received shocks but could turn them off by pressing a
button with their noses.
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The "no personal
control" dogs were paired with the escapable shock dogs. They
received the same shocks as the “escapable shock dogs” although
nothing they did affected when the shocks would end.
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The "no shock" dogs
didn't receive any shocks.
Both the “escapable shock” dogs and the “no shock” dogs learned to
escape the shock by jumping to the other compartment in seconds. The
“no personal control” dogs however just gave up, would lie down and
just received the shocks. They never learned that the shocks could be
avoided by jumping to the other compartment. Literally hundreds of
studies have been conducted with people, rats, and dogs that have come
to the same conclusion, that a “giving up” occurs when individuals
cannot escape aversive circumstances.
Seligman described optimism as how we think about the causes of good
things and bad things that happen to us, or our "explanatory style".
Optimists have a bias in their thinking and interpretations that continue
to give them hope to keep on trying in spite of difficulties.
Pessimists have been found to have a neutral posture or even a
negative bias.
Pessimists have been found to experience more depression due to their
negative explanatory style. They have also been found to have more
health problems. One study of optimism and heart attacks found that
eight years after the heart attack, 24% of the optimists have died and
84% of the pessimists had died. Another study assessed optimism and
pessimism and also found that after 30 years, pessimists had much
higher mortality rates.
When pessimists face adversity, they are much more likely than
optimists to believe there is nothing they can do to help themselves.
Since they're also less likable than optimists, they also tend to have
a smaller social support network, which is another factor that
contributes significantly to higher risk for illness and poorer
prognosis for recovery from illness.
Information from Defy
Aging by Michael Brickey Ph.D
Additional Information and
webpage by Paul Susic MA Licensed
Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate
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