Optimists live longer: Being positive is an elixir of life

It can hardly be surprising that optimism has been identified as the, or at least an, elixir of life. After all, a sense of possibility makes things possible. The convex is also true — pessimism, a sense of fatality, probably pre-ordains poor outcomes in most ventures.

Boston University School of Medicine has gone further. It has concluded, after completing more than 70,000 case studies, that an optimistic person is more likely to live a longer life than a person with a less ebullient outlook.