Pessimism May be Key to Living a Longer, Healthier Life

Are you pessimistic? You may live longer. A new study has found that older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to have longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead.

The research, published online in the journal Psychology and Aging, examined data collected from 1993 to 2003 for the national German Socio-Economic Panel, an annual survey of private households consisting of approximately 40,000 people between the ages of 18 to 96. The researchers, including Frieder R. Lang and colleagues, then divided the data into three age groups: 18 to 39 years old, 40 to 64 years old and 65 years old and above. The surveys included in-person interviews and asked people to rate how satisfied they were with their lives and how satisfied they thought they would be in five years.

After examining the data, researchers looked at the results of other surveys that were conducted five years after the first interview. They found that 43 percent of the oldest group had underestimated their future life satisfaction while 25 percent had predicted accurately and 32 percent had overestimated. Yet they also found that each increase in overestimating life satisfaction was related to a 9.5 percent increase in reporting disabilities and a 10 percent increased risk of death.

When they examined the different age groups, though, they found that the youngest group had the sunniest outlook on life with the middle-aged groups had the most accurate predictions. The older adults tended to have a darker outlook on the future.

In order to achieve a full understanding of participants' current and future life satisfaction, they measured satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10. They then determined the accuracy of predicting this satisfaction by measuring the difference between anticipated satisfaction and actual satisfaction reported later. The researchers then accounted for differences in the participants, such as age, gender and income.

Overall, they found that a darker outlook may be the key to a longer life. "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," said Lang in a press release. "Moreover, we found that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability."

Yet researchers caution that their findings don't contradict theories that unrealistic optimism can sometimes help people feel better when they face inevitable negative outcomes, such as terminal disease. Even so, the findings do shed light on how perspectives can either help or hinder people in taking actions that can help improve chances in life.