I’m the type of person who rolls their eyes at anyone who calls themselves an optimist. Am I bitter? Absolutely. It makes sense, when you consider that a global pandemic stole my youth, the rent is too damn high, and I’m slowly but very surely developing an intolerance to lactose. I just might try to cut back on my negativity a bit, though — especially after this new study found that optimism, however delusional, can make your life longer.
The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, included 159,255 women from racially diverse backgrounds, per EurekAlert. The researchers found that higher levels of optimism, which they defined as “the generalized expectation of positive future outcomes,” correlated with longer lives and a higher likelihood of living past 90 years of age. Women who were more optimistic had a 5.4% longer lifespan on average, which translates to a couple of years of extra life.
