It’s official: optimists may live longer than pessimists. Of the 70,000 women who were monitored as part of an eight-year study by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, those who had a positive reaction to setbacks were 52 per cent less likely to die from infection, 39 per cent less likely to die of stroke, 38 per cent less likely to die of heart and respiratory disease, and 16 per cent less likely to die of cancer. The study also found that ‘low-cost interventions’, such as writing down positive outcomes for different areas of life, could help boost optimism.
