the "positivity" effect

Studies show that the “positivity” effect leads to better health and a longer life. What is the meaning of the “positivity” effect? The “positivity” effect means that people have a more positive attitude. Becca Levy, a psychologist at Yale University, collaborated with researchers for the Ohio Longitudinal study to state that “older people with a more positive attitude toward old age lived seven and a half years longer”(hall.2007 paragraph20). The reasons for this are: different brain pattern, good emotion control and less chance of sickness.
First of all, people with a positive attitude showed a distinctly different pattern of brain from those with a negative attitude which leads to better health. Studies show that, people with a positive attitude seem to use their prefrontal cortex, which exerts “executive control” over certain brain functions, “to tamp down activity in the amygdale”, which is used to process a negative attitude, such as fear (Hall .2007 paragraph22). In contrast, people who always face life with a negative attitude will have a higher activity in the amygdala. Since the brain is the most important part of a human being’s body, any slight change will affect people a lot. Therefore, a higher activity in the amygdala will cause poor health which is bad for people.
Secondly, people who are good at regulating negative emotions have longer life. Old people especially have a lot of experiences. When they have some unhappy things, they can face them with a positive attitude because they know from their previous experiences a negative attitude cannot help. The only thing they can do is avoiding negative thinking and finding out the best solution. Therefore, they always smile at life. In China, there is a very famous adage saying that “the smile will make you ten years younger.” Obviously, even a long time ago, when people’s knowledge was very limited, people already realized that a positive attitude leads to better health and a longer life.
Last but not least, the “positivity” effect reduces the chance of sickness. Negative emotions, such as sadness, unhappiness and stress, cause poor health. In recent years, a lot of young people have died suddenly due to heart weakness. That is because they did not know how to regulate their negative emotions under stress. Nowadays, stress appears everywhere. If you are student, you are afraid of failing of your exams; if you are worker, you are afraid of losing your job. These people always feel sad because of stress. Their heart rapid beat cause heart weakness. It is very bad for health. Finally, their heart cannot bear the load. They died during the golden period of their life. How pity! Therefore, we can easily see that, the “positivity” effect leads to better health and a longer life.
In conclusion, the “positivity” effect leads to better health and a longer life due to: different brain patterns, good emotion control and less chance of sickness. Therefore, we have to learn to use a positive attitude toward our life.





Reference
Hall S.S.(8 May,2007). Wisdom comes with age? Not true. The Straits Times.