When we were in college, we adopted a mindset right before major tests or final exams that screamed to others: "Help, I'm going to fail...I'll never learn all this material." When we landed our first big job, we secretly pondered whether we would ever be able to learn the the complexities of the business. And in many of our personal encounters we wondered if people would really like us or love us or spend the rest of their lives with us. Throughout these outwardly dramatic shows of apparent pessimism, most of us were secretly thinking things would turn in our favor...most of us in our younger years were still generally optimistic about our overall futures even as we underestimated our abilities to perform. For these encounters, we practiced the power of positive pessimism, which is really cautious optimism in disguise.
A recent German study in the journal Psychology and Aging shows that genuine pessimism in older adults might have the added bonus of improving their life spans. Findings suggest that older adults are more likely to underestimate their satisfaction with their lives and that this underestimation was associated with positive health outcomes. Pessimism was related to better subjective health and higher income. The researchers speculate that, in older age, individuals are more likely to consider their time to be limited and this realization promotes a closer look at savoring the present rather than expecting things to improve in the future.
Data also indicated that younger people remained optimistic about their futures, the researchers found, perhaps because health was not as bi an issue,. In midlife, they found that adults changed from a more optimistic view to a more realistic anticipation of their future satisfaction and that this group might experience a turning point with regard to their expectations for the future
So perhaps, in the older group, the pessimists worry more about their health and undertake more steps to ensure their well being. The researchers suggest that their findings serve to underscore the critical role of realistic views on the future when having to cope with the challenges of aging.
Perhaps the power of positive pessimism provides a cautious approach for older Americans to embrace.
