Hamburg (dpa) - For the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer optimism was fundamentally wrong, banal and corrupting while the father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud simply declared it to be neurotic.

Experience shows that looking on the bright side of life does have advantages and recent scientific evidence points to the positive mindset as being beneficial to health. In other words optimists live longer.

That was the conclusion reached by experts at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. state of Minnesota who evaluated answers given by people to a set of questions in the 1960s. Of the 729 candidates, 200 had died and according to scientists, there was a disproportionate number of pessismists among them.

Ten points more on the pessimism scale - that was the difference between "slightly pessimistic" and "averagely pessimistic" were enough to boost a person's chances of dying by 19 percent, according to the study by prominent psychologist Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania.

The study does not say why pessimists die but an older survey taken among children in San Francisco and Los Angeles makes it clear that personal attitude towards the world is a key factor in the longevity equation.

The beliefs in this respect of 1,179 respondents, all of them are now dead, proved to be a mine of data for scientists over decades and one aspect was found to be decisive. People who regard failure not as a chance stroke of bad luck but as symptomatic for the world and their own fate were apt to die three years younger than optimistic people.

The latest evidence to support the theory that optimists tend to cope better with illness of all kinds has been provided by Professor Ralf Schwarzer of Berlin's Free University who questioned 600 heart and lung patients. His conclusion: Optimists recover more swiftly from operations than their pessimistic counterparts, tend to be happier after treatment and return to work more swiftly.

There have been suggestions that optimists do not stay healthier but rather turn into optimists later because they enjoy good health. Numerous surveys have taken into account a person's state of health at the outset and the effect remains the same.

Studies have shown that optimists do not blin themselves to reality either. They thus interpret it in a positive way. Said Californian psychology professor Shelley Taylor: "Subliminating and denying things tends to alter reality but illusions are a way of seeing reality in the best light."

German science journal "Bild der Wissenschaft", which carries a major article on the topic in its current March issue, commented on "the right attitude" to having a tumour.

It seems psychotherapy can go some way towards extending the life span and life quality of a sick person although a complete recovery using psychological technique alone is unlikely.

Doctors like, however, to point to the example of U.S. cycling professional Lance Armstrong, who was seriously ill with cancer, but whose unshakeable optimism helped him to take the top trophy twice at cycling's premier Tour de France.

The magazine also quoted a study by Sheldon Cohens of the Carnegie-Mellon-University in Pittsburgh: 420 volunteers were deliberately infected with strains of various common cold viruses. A day later checks were carried out to see who had caught a cold.

The results showed that in the case of people who had satisfactory, long-term relations with friends, neighbours or colleagues, the virus was less likely to trigger a cold. Of people with three or fewer firm relationships 62 percent became ill compared with only 35 percent of those who had six or more close human links.

By Rudolf Grimm

From SOHU.COM