英语时差：乐观的代价

Is being an optimist really good for you? That's the question Don and Yael discuss on this Moment of Science. D: Has anyone ever told you that if you keep frowning your face is going to stick like that?

Y: My grandmother. She's Miss Sunshine; always looking on the bright side of things, even now that she's ninety-eight years old. It's rather extraordinary. Seems to me there couldn't be much to be happy about at that age, except that you're still alive I suppose.

D: That's exactly what I'm talking about. Research shows that whether a person is an optimist or a pessimist is related to their quality of life, including their physical health. The subjects involved first took personality tests in the 1960's and then thirty years later they completed a follow-up self-assessment of their health status. Researchers found that not only did the optimists from the 1960's report better physical and mental functioning thirty years later, but that optimists also lived longer on average than pessimists. It's hardly clear that there is a causal relationship between optimism and health; it could be that they are related to the same underlying gene complex or set of mechanisms. Still, it sure is tempting to surmise that it's partly your grandmother's positive attitude that has kept her alive this long. It may actually be possible that a lot of what my parents have been telling me for years is true. If you think positively, good things may happen to you. If you think negatively, then you may doom yourself.

Y: They also say that a positive or negative attitude can be contagious. If that's true then I guess I ought to spend more time with my grandmother. I'm not getting any younger.

D: Can I come too?