Poor Health Outlook for Pessimists

Pessimists tend to have worse health over the long-term than their positive peers. Or, put more positively, optimists tend to have better health over the long-term than their negative peers.

That is the conclusion in the second of a series of studies: the first part of the series found that positive people generally live longer than their negative peers.

Nearly 500 people were first evaluated between 1962 and 1965 for the study, and found that 100 were optimistic, 75 pessimistic, and 275 had a mix of attitudes toward life. Thirty years later the researchers re-evaluated them again, and found the pessimistic patients had lower ratings in all tested areas of health than the optimists and those with a mix of attitudes.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2002;77:748-753