More optimistic people live longer

Created on 03.07.2018

This statement is based on nearly 50 years of data collected in the United States. Women and African Americans were less optimistic during the study period than men and whites. Optimism is positively determined by greater income, health, and education.

The article also sheds light on the underlying trends contributing to the so-called deaths of despair epidemic ongoing in the United States.

For more information

Press release 20/2018 (french version) (Pdf, 133 Kb)
Economie & statistiques N°100
How was optimism related to mortality before the rise in “deaths of despair” that began in the late 1990s? We show that as early as 1968 more optimistic people lived longer. The relationship depends on many factors including gender, race, health, and education. We then evaluate these and other variables as determinants of individual optimism over the period 1968-1975. We find women and African Americans were less optimistic at the time than men and whites (although this has changed in recent years). Greater education is associated with greater optimism and so is having wealthy parents. We then predict optimism for the same individuals in subsequent years, thus generating our best guess as to how optimism changed for various demographic groups from 1976-1995. We find people with less than a high school degree show the greatest declines in optimism, which along with their long-run links to premature mortality and deaths of despair, highlights the importance of better understanding optimism’s causes and consequences.
Link to Brookings

Last update 27.09.2021