Date: May 9, 2001
Contact: Pam Willenz
Public Affairs Office
(202) 336-5707

EXPERIENCING POSITIVE EMOTIONS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD CAN LEAD TO A LONGER LIFE, ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY

Findings From A Longitudinal Study of Nuns Show Health Benefits of Written Expressions of Happiness, Hope And Love

WASHINGTON - New findings suggests a link between writing about positive experiences and living a longer life, according to a new study in the May issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published by the American Psychological Association.

Handwritten autobiographies were examined in a longitudinal study of 180 nuns from different convents around the U.S. to determine whether the emotional content of these writings increased or decreased the nun's mortality risks, according to lead author Deborah D. Danner, Ph.D. Danner and co-authors David A. Snowdon, Ph.D., and Wallace V. Friesen, Ph.D., of the University of Kentucky coded the autobiographies for emotional content, which were written by the sisters when they were between 18-32 years old (average age was 22) in 1930.

When the nuns were contacted six decades later when they were between 75-90 years old, 76 (42%) had died. More than half the sisters exceeded their life expectancy. And the sisters whose writings focused on the positive emotions experienced by themselves or others survived the longest, said the authors. This finding shows a strong association between the amount of positive emotional content in the nun's autobiographies written in early adulthood and their likelihood of being alive six decades later in 1991 and then again nine years later in 2000, said the authors.

Because of the unique lifestyle and culture of Catholic sisters and the longevity of the study - over 60 years, the authors created a coding system that could reliably and validly identify positive and negative emotional content in each sister's writings. The background influences were easily matched since the nuns had similar reproductive and marital histories, social activities and support, did not smoke or drink excessive amounts of alcohol. They also had similar occupations and socioeconomic status and had comparable access to medical care.

Taking into account that nuns are less likely to engage in behaviors that are health risks such as excessive drinking and smoking, the authors agree that this may be part of why they lived a long life. But, they argue that "the phenomenon represented by the use of positive emotion words in early adulthood writings did add years to their lives."

Why does positive emotional content early in life writings lead to a long life? The authors speculate that "individual differences in emotional content in the autobiographies possibly reflect life-long patterns of emotional responses to life events."

Article: "Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity: Findings From the Nun Study," Deborah D. Danner, Ph.D., David A. Snowdon, Ph.D., and Wallace V. Friesen, Ph.D., University of Kentucky; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 80, No. 5.

Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office or at http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp805804.pdf

Deborah D. Danner, Ph.D., can be reached by telephone at (859) 257-1412 ext 230

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