A study published in the August 2002 American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/description.html) found that older individuals with positive self-perceptions of aging lived seven and one half years longer than individuals who perceived aging in a less positive light. The Yale University Department of Epidemiology and Public Health researchers analyzed information gathered from 338 male and 322 female participants in the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement. Participants answered questionnaires twenty-three years earlier which measured their perceptions of aging. For example, subjects were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, "Things keep getting worse as I get older."

After analyzing mortality rates for the group and adjusting for age, gender, overall health, socioeconomic status and loneliness, the 7.5 year greater lifespan remained for those whose answers on the questionnaires were characteristic of a more positive outlook. The study also found that the will to live accounts partly for the relationship between positive perceptions of aging and lifespan. Cardiovascular response to stress, which can be affected when older individuals are exposed to negative aging stereotypes, may contribute to these findings as well.

Author Becca R Levy PhD, and colleagues write, "The effect of more positive self-perceptions of aging on survival is greater than the physiological measures of low systolic blood pressure and cholesterol, each of which is associated with a longer lifespan of four years or less. The survival advantage of more positive self-perceptions of aging is also greater than the independent contributions of lower body mass index; no history of smoking, and a tendency to exercise, each of these factors has been found to contribute between one and three years of added life . . . Our study carries two messages. The discouraging one is that negative self-perceptions can diminish life expectancy; the encouraging one is that positive self-perceptions can prolong life expectancy. "