Winston Churchill once said, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." That means that optimism reflects how one person sees the outcomes of events that will generally turn out to be positive.
Although it is not easy to always look at the bright side of things, especially during the trying times, optimism can help people live longer, according to a new study. Boston University researchers surveyed 233 older men for 14 years and found that optimistic men led longer, healthier lives than pessimists because they had fewer stressors to deal with.
Optimism Promotes Longer, Healthier Life in Men By Limiting Stressful EventsOne Experiences
Optimistic Men Handle Everyday Stress Differently
Household chores, traffic, and work problems are just some examples of everyday stressors that people encounter. In the new study, titled "Optimism, Daily Stressors, and Emotional Well-Being Over Two Decades in a Cohort of Aging Men," published in The Journals of Gerontology, researchers found that optimism promotes emotional well-being.
The team explained that optimism helps older men limit how often they experience stressful situations or change their interpretation of stressful situations, Science Daily reported.
Clinical psychologist Lewina Lee from the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at the VA Boston Healthcare System said that the study tests the hypothesis that optimistic people handle daily stress more constructively, resulting in better emotional well-being.
Indeed, after following 233 older men who first completed an optimism questionnaire 14 years ago, they found that optimistic men reported lower negative and more positive moods. More so, the participants reported having to deal with fewer stressors, which explained their lower levels of negative mood.
While studies like this support the idea that optimism promotes good health, emotional well-being, and longevity, the mechanism behind it is not yet fully researched. But by looking at how optimistic men handle the stressors that would have a negative impact on their health, the findings of the new study support the claim that optimism promotes good health later in life.
While the study is conducted in older men, researchers believe that the findings can also be applied to older women. Also, Lee added that less is known about age differences in the role of optimism in one's health.
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Being Too Optimistic Can Make A Person Lazy
According to Psychology Today, optimism is a way of looking at the world positively and should not be mistaken for wishful or fantastic thinking. Optimists have a healthier outlook than pessimists and tend to be less susceptible to illness. However, some people forget to work to fulfill their wishes, which somehow forfeits the purpose of positive thinking.
Gabriele Oettingen, a New York University psychology professor who wrote the Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation, said that people's energy tends to drop when they generate happy fantasies about the future. They often forget to exert effort to actually achieve their fantasies and end up unsuccessful.
This phenomenon of overestimating the likelihood of positive events and downplaying negative outcomes is called optimism bias. At the end of the day, optimistic viewpoints can help achieve one's dreams, but a dose of realism can make a person succeed more likely.
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