Death may come sooner for people who believe things are worse than they are

People who tend to 'catastrophize' about bad events have a greater risk of dying early, especially by accidental or violent means, according to a new analysis.

University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson, PhD, and his colleagues found that people who cognitively project bad events across many realms of their lives, rather than seeing them as isolated problems, face a greater risk of death before age 65.

The researchers based their conclusions on a review of data from the famous Terman Life-Cycle study, which began in 1921 and has tracked more than 1,500 participants from age 10 to their deaths. In questionnaires they filled out as young adults, the study participants described bad events they?d experienced thus far in their lives, such as failures, losses, major disappointments or serious personal faults. Peterson and his colleagues then reviewed death certificates and reports from relatives about the cause of death for about 1,180 of the Terman study participants.

Explanatory style had no apparent link with death by cancer or cardiovascular disease, but had a stronger link with death by accident or violence, the researchers say. Male participants who catastrophized were the most likely to die by age 65 due to accident or violence, Peterson says. Women catastrophizers were only slightly more likely than noncatastrophizing women?and less likely than catastrophizing men?to meet accidental or violent deaths by age 65.

Catastrophizing is linked with poor problem-solving, social estrangement and risky decision-making, which may explain why people with such an explanatory style are more prone to violent or accidental deaths, he and his colleagues note. Catastrophizers, particularly men, may simply be less likely to avoid potentially hazardous situations, they say.

The findings appear in the March issue of Psychological Science. The analysis is one of a series of studies on the psychosocial predictors of health and longevity, based on data derived from the Terman study. APA President Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, co-authored the analysis along with Karen Yurko of Children?s Hospital of Michigan; Leslie Martin, PhD, of La Sierra University in California; and Howard Friedman, PhD, of the University of California?Riverside.

?S. Sleek