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In a large study of post-menopausal(1) women, optimists(2) had decreased rates of death and were less likely to be hypertensive(3), diabetic(4) and smokers than pessimists(5), according to(6) researchers(7) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In addition, women identified as highly mistrustful(8) of other people had increased rates of death when compared to their less “cynically hostile(9)” counterparts(10). The results of the research will be presented during the American Psychosomatic(11) Society’s 67th annual meeting in Chicago this week.

The study, led by Hilary Tindle, M.D.(12), M.P.H.(13), assistant professor(14) of medicine in the Division of Internal Medicine(15), analyzed data from nearly 100,000 women in the Women’s Health Initiative(16), a National Institutes of Health(17)-funded(18) study that has followed women ages 50 and over since 1994, with follow-up(19) ongoing(20).

Optimism(21) was defined as(22) the expectation that good, rather than bad, things will happen. Female optimists in the group surveyed had a decreased rate of death and were 30 percent less likely to die from coronary heart disease(23) than pessimists. Those identified as being more cynically hostile had a higher rate of death and were 23 percent more likely to die from a cancer(24)-related(25) condition.

For the study, optimism and cynical hostility(26) were not directly compared. Rather, optimists were compared to pessimists, while women with a high degree of cynical hostility were compared to those with a low degree of cynical hostility.

“The effects of optimism and cynical hostility were independent of one another(27). After taking into account(28) a woman’s degree of cynical hostility, the health effects of optimism did not change.