Another reason to look on the bright side of life.
New research published in the journal Psychological Science suggests people who are more likely to experience positive emotions in their day-to-day life like enthusiasm and cheerfulness, are less likely to experience memory decline as they get older.
The study involved an analysis of 991 middle aged and older adults in the US across three time periods: between 1995 and 1996, 2004 and 2006 and 2013 and 2014.
In each period, participants were asked to report on positive emotions they’d experienced in the last 30 days before performing a memory performance test involving word recall.
After accounting for factors like age, gender, education, depression and extroversion, researchers found participants with positive outlooks experienced memory decline at a more gradual rate than peers who had a more negative outlook.
“Individuals with higher levels of positive effect had a less steep memory decline over the course of almost a decade,” said Emily Hittner from Northwestern University, the paper’s lead author.
Researchers say further analysis is needed, but it’s definitely a good reason to try to see the glass half-full – and not half-empty!
