7 ms·
Optimism associated with exceptional longevity (2019)
- Insanity 1y agoIt makes sense to me, as the article also points out, being more optimistic might indicate lower levels of stress. And (prolonged) stress has been known for a long time to be detrimental to health.
- unionjack22 1y agoIf anyone wishes to use this study as a catalyst to shift one’s attitude, then I highly recommend dropping the dopaminergic doomloop apps like Reddit/Bluesky/X/tiktok/IG. Your life will be better for it. Snapchat can stay…for reasons.
- bix6 1y ago+1, I’m off the apps and it’s been so liberating.
- forgetfulness 1y agoRage-engagement, something I never needed, and that I knew I needed out of my life, I just didn't know how much of a positive impact it would have to get off it. Sorry Zuck and Spez, but I know you'll be fine without a hatebuck or two.
- ajuc 1y agoSocial media like all addictions fulfill needs that you can't satisfy other ways in your current state. Mostly human contact and validation. If you start getting out there and communicating with real people on intimate level - most addictions melt away by itself. It makes more sense to focus on the root cause instead of fighting the symptoms.
- HEmanZ 1y agoI disagree. Looking inward at myself at outward at addicted friends and family it does not fill any need. What it does is “hooks the attention” using outrage and a constant stream of dopamine hits. “ If you start getting out there and communicating with real people on intimate level - most addictions melt away by itself.” I highly suspect you are not an addiction specialist…
- coldtea 1y ago>I highly suspect you are not an addiction specialist… Which also means they're not selling addiction help (which profits when addicts remain so), nor is indoctrinated to the professional fads of that racket
- unionjack22 1y agoIt can be both. The further away I get from social media and its singular narratives where it’s always “this ONE thing” form of causeality, the more I realize the mechanisms and causes can be multimodal and compound upon on another.
- WhyOhWhyQ 1y agoSince someone else vocally disagreed, I'll just back this up. If you change your social situation (new job, new friends, etc...) then a lot of other changes seem to be easier, in my experience.
- jimbokun 1y agoGetting off those apps is a good first step towards getting out there and communicating with real people on an intimate level.
- kernc 1y agoWhat are the reasons for Snapchat? :.
- iberator 1y agoLadies
- aswegs8 1y agoDoes not compute
- coldtea 1y agoIf you're above 25 (if not 20), Snapchat should be the last place to search for ladies...
- unionjack22 1y agoI(1992) keep it because my younger family members(Gen Z>) refuse to use anything else to communicate.
- OhioMan2943 1y agoYou have my condolences
- OhioMan2943 1y agoHonestly above 18-
- iberator 1y agoWhat's wrong with dating 20 -25 yr olds? LOL (central europe, millenial)
- TRiG_Ireland 1y agoInstagram, for me, is mostly parkour and World Chase Tag clips. I don't love the way it's designed, but it isn't "doomy" (yet).
- lisbbb 1y agoBased on my downvotes here, I'd say the reddit crowd and the HN crowd Venn diagrams overlap 99%.
- RickJWagner 1y agoGreat idea. I believe this is often suggested for people suffering depression.
- anself 1y agoPessimists are going to read this and call BS
- forgetfulness 1y agoA truly committed pessimist would accept this dark omen. Anyway, this definition of optimism > or the belief that the future will be favorable because one can control important outcomes Isn't what one colloquially means by it. Though it is eye catching that it will make a positive impact even if you don't, actually, control important outcomes, like by not smoking > These relations were independent of socioeconomic status, health conditions, depression, social integration, and health behaviors (e.g., smoking, diet, and alcohol use). Overall, findings suggest optimism may be an important psychosocial resource for extending life span in older adults.
- coldtea 1y ago>A truly committed pessimist would accept this dark omen Nah, that would be a fatalist
- jimbokun 1y agoSurely there's some overlap? Don't know many optimistic fatalists.
- coldtea 1y agofatalist thinks whatever is to come will come and accepts whatever comes pessimmist thinks the worse will come - and is grumpy about it
- pinkmuffinere 1y ago“It’s all going to be great, and you can’t change that no matter how hard you try.”
- B1FF_PSUVM 1y agoExactly. Optimists are perpetually disappointed bitter people. Pessimists look at anything good as an unexpected bonus. All the good humorists are pessimists.
- cubefox 1y agoSo exceptional longevity causes optimism? That would make sense at least.
- snek_case 1y agoIt might also be something like: people who experience relatively little psychological distress are optimistic, and also live longer. We don't like to talk about it, but there is a biological component to how happy or anxious someone is. Not to say that everyone is doomed to be a certain way because of their genetics, but I've known people who are basically never sad, and it's not because they've found some kind of secret of happiness. I have a friend who has the temperament of a golden retriever.
- coldtea 1y agoOr less stressing about things and giving less fucks causes longevity. Which makes even more sense, since stress affects all cause mortality and all kinds of outcomes, and even mere positive disposition towards a treatment is found to make a big difference in patients.
- RobotToaster 1y agoGreat, another thing to worry about.
- perrysmith 1y agoLife is goooooood, man.
- fusslo 1y agoEverything I've learned from psychology (and by this I mean watching psychology lectures from Yale and Stanford on youtube and reading the associated textbooks) makes me confident that I will have a short and unhappy life. Dr Bloom spoke about how your overall mood during college is a good predictor for how happy you'll be as a person throughout your life. He talked about the optimum time to get married is 26. He elucidated the idea of your prefrontal cortex solidifying around 25, making personality changes MUCH more difficult. Dr Sopolsky spoke about biological markers that may affect human behavior - both inherited and environmentally influenced. At 35 I am starting to suspect that I may be on the spectrum ( I kinda expected some adult to tell me this as a child, if it's true ). The males on my fathers side (with the exception of my uncle) do not make it past 67. My mothers side has inter-generational trauma that I know i've inherited avoidant behaviors that limit my social ability. So great news.
- johnrob 1y agoResearch focuses on trends. You are a sample of 1, however, so anything is possible. Create your own path!
- jack_tripper 1y ago>Dr Bloom spoke about how your overall mood during college is a good predictor for how happy you'll be as a person throughout your life. Welp, I guess I'm dead then. >around 25, making personality changes MUCH more difficult Maybe it's just me but my personality keeps changing every year or so, based on the positive and negative experiences and challenges from living abroad alone, having to always adapt to new stuff to stay mentally, financially and socially afloat. I assume it's different if you spend your whole life in the same place you grew up in with the same people doing the same things. Maybe the brain checks out from the repetition. >avoidant behaviors that limit my social ability Move aboard to another country where you don't speak the language.
- HEmanZ 1y agoIf it’s true then this is a propensity and not a rule. My mood in college was suicidal. My mood by my 30s was better than most people I’ve ever met (sans hiccup from a year of no sleep with a newborn). Looking back my horrible mood in college was probably caused by isolation, no sleep, high pressure course load, and too much alcohol. And I’ve noticed my mood drops dramatically when I get it in my head that I need to be more successful, at any point in my life.
- id 1y agoIt wouldn't surprise me if healthy, privileged people with access to good healthcare are more optimistic than those with serious illness, no coverage and three shitty jobs. Hard to be optimistic when you have cancer and can't afford treatment.
- antegamisou 1y agoYeah I also feel introducing some social class - income level variable would help clear things up.
- jimbokun 1y ago> These relations were independent of socioeconomic status, health conditions, depression, social integration, and health behaviors (e.g., smoking, diet, and alcohol use). Overall, findings suggest optimism may be an important psychosocial resource for extending life span in older adults.
- ekropotin 1y agoYep, immortal billioners is exactly what our society needs right now.
- aswegs8 1y agoGahd damn billioners
- viach 1y agoX -> Optimism, Optimism -> Longevity Can't wait for a research which reveals the X.
- ponector 1y agoX is a rich family. Hard to be an optimistic person if you struggle to afford to live.
- port11 1y agoBeing healthy, good social connections, meaningful activities, exercise, family you can depend on, etc. I wonder if the optimism is just a confounding factor, or rather just the middle man we can measure. Seems like having a good life would make one more optimistic about their prospects.
- giantg2 1y agoWell I'm screwed
- OutOfHere 1y agoThis seems like a rather obvious case of "correlation is not causation". Moreover, the vocabulary of optimism vs pessimism doesn't capture that one can work diligently to avoid pessimistic outcomes, so does that make one optimistic or pessimistic? After adjusting for the correlation, I suspect realists will have the highest longevity.
- cindyllm 1y ago[dead]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- didibus 1y agoI suspect optimism is learned to some extent. Past experiences and outcomes shape your optimism, because it skews your bias. People who had good things happen and got lucky get more optimistic as that's their experience. If true, it might be that good genetics and environment gives you exceptional longevity, and also increases your chances of good outcomes at every step of your life which in turn make you an optimist. Off course, I'd love to believe it's your mindset that affects outcomes, as it would give you control over your destiny, but it's precisely because that truth is so tempting that I'm extra skeptical of it.
- monarchwadia 1y ago[dead]
- dleary 1y agoThis sounds like it should be true, but from life experience, I don't really think it is. It would be rational for things to work that way, but personalities and emotions are not very rational. There are some people who seem like they have everything in life going for them, and they're still pessimists, their narrative of the world is petty and ugly, or cruel. Conversely, there are other people who have suffered tragedies that I might consider literally unbearable (i.e. suicide-worthy), and they are still optimists. I think these are more fundamental personality traits. You can see it in siblings that grow up in essentially identical conditions, but one has a "sunny disposition" and another is anxious and worried.
- rcxdude 1y agoAye, I think this matches. I'm generally quite an optimistic and trusting person, and it's bitten me in the backside in a big way recently, but I don't think that's changed my outlook much. (Though, I think this is modulated by a lot of experience working in R+D where I feel like you need a healthy mix of optimism and pessimism/skepticism. Enough optimism to believe that you will figure it out in the end but enough pessimism that you don't see victory where it isn't or make promises you can't keep)
- fellowniusmonk 1y ago
- pojzon 1y agoWho would have thought that less stress is good for your health. Mire news at 10.
- lisbbb 1y agoMy father is 84 and is among the most cantakerous people ever born. It's a sample size of 1, but he is a counter example since he's never had a single moment of optimism is his entire life!
- port11 1y agoHe's staying alive out of spite for studies like this one.
- DenisM 1y ago> For men in NAS, higher baseline optimism levels were similarly related to longer life span (Table 1, NAS; P trend = 0.002). After adjusting for demographics, baseline health conditions, and depression, compared to the least optimistic men, those in the highest quintile had 10.9% (95% CI: 1.3%, 21.5%) longer life span. Notably absent: control by wealth.
- aydyn 1y agoIt did control that in demographics. > "For NAS, the demographics model includes baseline age, being white, being married, education, *family income*, and father’s occupation"
- tpmoney 1y ago> For NAS, the demographics model includes baseline age, being white, being married, education, family income, and father’s occupation. Not wealth specifically, but income is probably as good of a controlling factor.
- DenisM 1y agoBeing part of the model is not the same as controlling for that variable, or is it?
- tpmoney 1y agoThey said "controlling for demographics", which seems to imply pretty strongly that income is a controlled for variable if it's part of the "demographics" model. To get a better answer, you'd probably have to dig for the raw data
- nikolay 1y agoThis is not what the best study at hand has found based on the most extensive human study! Check out The Longevity Project [0][1]! Optimistic people don't pay much attention to symptoms! [0]: https://www.longevity-project.com/ https://www.longevity-project.com/ [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longevity_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longevity_Project
- cyanydeez 1y agoUnfortunately, the people itll keep alive not the ones we would want; the same way capitalism seems to select for sociopathy.