Optimism-Longevity Link

Would you like to live on average almost 8 years longer? I certainly would! The results of a study looking at a link between optimism and longevity was published in The International Journal of Aging and Human Development (Turner & Hooker, 2020). According to the authors, literature has pointed to the saliency of self-perceptions of aging (SPA) to the actual aging processes themselves. Researchers wanted to identify whether two future-oriented constructs—optimism and self-efficacy associated with possible selves—were associated with SPA. In a nutshell, the personality 7.5 years. According to the first study author, Turner, “How we think about who we’re going to be in old age is very predictive of exactly how we will be.” People who imagine themselves more positively at 50-years-old tend to have better health 40 years later. They are less likely to suffer a heart attack, have better memory, greater will to live, and are less likely to die prematurely.  Older people can do some things better than young people do. Picture a future where everything that could go well, has gone well. You are reaching the realistic goals that you have set for yourself. For some, it is even more powerful to describe your future on paper. It is possible to be younger and healthier for longer. More tomorrow.