
Author: Truehope
A positive life can lead to a longer life
In 2001, American researchers published an article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showing their findings that describing our lives in positive ways can help us live longer.
The researchers analyzed the autobiographies of 180 Catholic nuns. These nuns wrote their biographies when they were between the ages of 18 and 32 (leaning to the younger end of the spectrum with a mean age of 22). The counted the positive sentences in the autobiographies, and organized them into 4 groups (quartiles), depending on the percentage of positive words.
The researchers conducted 4 types of analysis: