Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Optimism and Longevity

The Reuters story showing that Dutch men who were more optimistic lived longer misses the point. Coincidence is not causality. It could just as easily be that men with better circulation, or better digestion, or some hitherto unidentified health advantage feel better, and are thus more optimistic.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remain optimistic that they will find the reason that optimists live longer. (especially since I'm fighting cancer - optimism seems like a cheap weapon in my arsenal).

Besides, it takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown and I'm basically a lazy guy. ;-)

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Well, I know that being optimistic surely feels better to me...I suppose the brain can be tricked into many things and when I am in tune to a more positive energy it doesn't mean that reality changes around me...it just changes inside me.