More likely: "People who live 85 or more have more of the good things like health and safe environment which also makes them optimistic."
> That finding was independent of other factors thought to influence life's length — such as "socioeconomic status, health conditions, depression, social integration, and health behaviors," the researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health say.
This paper is not about incremental validity. The above does not apply.
There is no way to explain or describe this positive brain chemistry in a way that anyone can believe. But since I was a kid, my parents have been worried that Im too happy as they know dissatisfaction is what drives people to achieve. They would say things like "your only problem is you are too happy".
I havent lived to 85 yet though, so who knows.
For example do you wear a seat belt or brush your teeth? I know the questions may sound a bit offensive but I'm honestly interested in hearing people's motivations.
There are some paths that I would prefer, but even the bad paths have lots of positives.
During the 2010 recession we had a client that owed us 700K and I could tell from reading the 10Q was on the verge of bankruptcy. I had my team work very hard to collect our money. We got it and when they went bankrupt we survived while a lot of our peers went out of business. It isnt that I believed we would be ok, but that if we had not been able to collect the money and went out of business that would have been an incredible learning experience and something good would have come out of it.
Every outcome is not equally desired, I would rather be in business than not be in business. But not being in business, losing your home, becoming bankrupt etc. just doesnt stress me out. I have lived on 10K/year before and been incredibly happy. Even when I was digging change out of the couch to afford to buy food.
I guess one could map it very crudely so that the pessimist sees the alternatives as A = -10 and B = -8 and the optimist sees them as A = +4 and B = +6. Both estimate pairs will lead to the same action but the latter person will have a more positive outlook.
Have you read up on what such a "condition" - if it can be called that - is called medically? Do others share it as well?
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/what-does-i...
Medicine and science, being subject to the limitations of a falsifiable-evidence style of thinking as well as technical limitations, are understandably way behind the curve in this sort of thing.
From the reading I've done, the underlying physiological explanation for "the enlightened state" seems to be downgraded activity in the Default Mode Network of the brain, and evidence suggests this can be achieved in a variety of ways.
Meditation - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4529365/
Prayer - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/00952990.2016.1...
Psychedelics - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5857492/
Stroke - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3688936/
Meditation, prayer, and psychedelics often seem to put the rationalist-oriented mind into a sort of defensive, hyper-skeptical mode, but that the same phenomenon can also be observed in stroke patients hopefully makes such minds more open to considering the idea.
When my wife had an aortic dissection and had a high chance of dying, people had a hard time understanding how I could be so calm and not be stressed. It wasnt that I was sure she was going to make it, just that no matter the outcome I would still find happiness.
I'm in awe of this, because my personal view is that happiness is a fleeting chaotic state that mostly has no easily measurable probability of emerging, despite my attempts to grasp the shape of the distribution and its evolution in response to my actions. While I would consider myself not to be pessimistic, I definitely tend to have extremely rare encounters with what one would call happiness, which seems to be so starkly different from your life experience.
Near the end, he talks about three types of "happiness."
The first is pleasure. It's from food, fun, or other external experiences. While it can bring temporary happiness, you will always be looking for the next fix.
The second is happiness from passion, such as a hobby or working at your startup. You can go for years without success and still feel happy. However eventually you'll need some type of progress to keep going.
The third type is happiness from purpose. Think of it as working towards something bigger than yourself. This type of happiness can last a lifetime, even if all you do is sacrifice for it.
There is a downside which is that I dont get that happy over good events, I also dont get sad over bad events. I dont need anything to be happy so when good things happen, they are nice, but simply not necessary. Overall though I feel very fortunate, satisfied, optimistic, and happy with life.
More principally, these things just seem very believable because being optimistic is just a positive attribute that society rewards and approves of much more than it does pessimism (some would say being pessimistic is almost an universal negative, some outlier societies notwithstanding).
This imparts a definite bias in the believability of the study, no matter what the findings of the study actually are - even if the study were to only indicate a mild association between being optimistic and longevity.
Just consider the findings of a study from some years ago:
"High social status has its privileges when it comes to
aging – even in wild animals."
...
“High-ranking members in hyena clans reproduce more, they
live longer and appear to be in better overall health,” said
Nora Lewin, MSU doctoral student of zoology and co-lead
author. “If you want to see the hierarchy of spotted hyenas,
throw down some fresh meat near them. It’s quickly apparent
who’s dominant and who’s not.”
...
Lewin and her teammates focused on telomeres, caps at the end
of each strand of DNA that protect chromosomes from
deterioration. These biomarkers are regarded as important signs
of aging and stress in many species, including humans. Shrinking
telomeres are a signal that cells are sliding into defensive
mode, stressful actions that could soon lead to cells’ – and
to the organism’s – death.
“This work shows, for the first time, the effects of social
rank on telomere length in wild mammals,” Lewin said. “This enhances
our understanding of how social and ecological variables may
contribute to age-related declines of hyenas, and in organisms
in general.”[1]
Such stuff seems more believable due to a chain of assumptions about - low status mammals, stress levels, food security, likelihood of physical harm etc.
Its safe to assume those, it would seem - however light the actual evidence for it.
There are scores of studies like this with very light suggestive conclusions yet the believability is high.
I just wish these things are fleshed out with a lot more rigor and thoroughness by the science journalists or journalists at large. This isn't trivial, easily ignored stuff. These things have real world consequences if true.
Very palpable, sizable and profound consequences on people's lives.
[1]
Social Status Has Impact On Overall Health of Mammals
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2015/social-status-has-impact-...
Moreover, outward apparent optimism create illusion of success even when there is not actual real success backing it. (The optimism does not even have to be real, you just have to be committed to consistently pretend it.)
If you assume that everything will turn out well, you're not going to be cautious
If you assume people around you are all good you're in for some surprise, not of the good kind , especially if you are a girl in a dark alley
Plus, I dislike optimism, I find it's childish, but I get a lot of rewards nonetheless from people around me for being honest.
The illusion of success is not success, believing in the illusion of something is called faith, and it's what killed the people who prayed together for the black plague to stop, spreading the diseases.
https://observer.com/2015/08/4-things-millionaires-have-in-c...
Sometimes chances are low or times are bad and optimism should not equal refusing to see that.
But even the optimist sees that the glass is only a half full.
Naivety is thinking that half full is the best possible outcome or the only possible outcome.
It literally means "lack of judgement"