Why pessimists have a reason to be cheerful | Oliver Burkeman

Whatever explains Japan’s chart-topping life expectancy, it isn’t being really chipper all the time

For critics of positive thinking like me, as well as for plain old curmudgeons (also like me, to be fair), it’s an awkward truth that an optimistic outlook does seem to lead to a healthier life. Scientists, with their annoying fixation on facts, have published study after study suggesting that an upbeat attitude protects you from cancer, heart disease and stroke. In one big analysis of American women, the most optimistic were 29% less likely to die, during a six-year follow-up, than the least; in another, involving men too, people with positive views of ageing ended up living longer.

At last, though, we pessimists have something to fight back with: a new study in Psychological Science, highlighted on the Research Digest blog, that compared levels of optimism, cholesterol and body weight among people in the US and Japan. It found Americans are much likelier to have healthier cholesterol, and less likely to be overweight, if they’re chipper. But there was no such connection among the Japanese. Whatever explains Japan’s chart-topping life expectancy – lots of fish, a strong tradition of family care for the elderly – it isn’t being really cheerful all the time.

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Continue reading... October 20, 2017 at 07:30PM