Smiling Baseball Players Lived Longer
In a scientific study of 230 baseball players with pictures printed, it was found that among the 184 that had died, those players with wide smiles in their photos lived a full 7 years longer than those that did not smile at all! And, those that partially smiled lived longer than those that did not smile at all – read full smiling study here.
Optimistic Elderly People Lived Longer
In this scientific study of elderly Dutch men and women, it was found that there was a graded and independent protective relationship between dispositional optimism and all-cause mortality in old age. In other words, the optimistic people lived longer! Although optimism is not exactly the same as smiling, I found through the 30 Day Smiling Experiment that it was hard not to be optimistic if one made a point to smile – read full study here.
Optimistic Women Over 50 Live Longer
In a study of 100,000 women ages 50 and over it was found that optimistic women were 14% less likely to die from all causes. And that percentage was even higher for those dieing from heart disease and cancer! Optimism was defined as the expectation that good, rather than bad, things will happen -
read full story here.
Optimistic Mayo Clinic Patients Lived Longer
1100 patients at the Mayo Clinic completed a personality survey from 1962 to 1965. Those classified as optimists had a 19% higher chance of being alive 30 years later. There was no firm conclusion as to why this was true. It was speculated that an optimistic outlook led to better care options but it was not ruled out that an optimistic outlook was beneficial to one’s immune system – read full story.
I really am smiling knowinf that you’ve done this experiment. I work retail and well I am sure you can guess a smiley is a big deal where I work. We are asked to smile and greet everyone we come within 10 ft of(the 10 ft rule). It is amazing that in doing so I feel such warmth and pleasure at seeing smiles come back, not always from the mouth but in eyes as well. You can be having a horrible day and to see a smile come your way is a definite boost in the other direction. Your smile may be the first for people to see or perhaps the last, so I’m proud to share mine as often as I can and I hope that lots of people out there get that smiles are one of the simpliest gifts to share. Thanks for your study and I hope you are able to share to millions and that it makes a difference to twice as many lives.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment Sheree! I am still trying to keep a smile, even after the experiment. Sometimes it is tough. But I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t think “I need to smile more”.
Thanks for posting. Good to see that not everyone is using RSS feeds to build their blogs