The Week in Silly Studies: Pessimists live longer

It's no wonder the stereotypical old person is always worried kids are going to do something bad when stepping on their lawn.

They need to be cranky and yell at the kids to prolong their life. These seniors have obviously realized what a new study just learned - pessimists live longer.

A team of researchers in Germany examined the health and life satisfaction of people over the age of 65. They found the people who were more pessimistic lived longer, healthier lives, according to LiveScience.

"Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade," said researchers Frieder R. Lang in a statement. "Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions."

[ Last week's silly study: Don't tell your kids about your drug use ]

Researchers found 43 per cent of respondents underestimated, 32 per cent overestimated and 25 per cent accurately predicted what their future would look like in five years.

The study was conducted by Lang and his team at the Friedrick Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuernberg. It was recently published in the journal Psychology and Aging.

For every notch a person overestimated their future, they had a 9.5 per cent increased chance of reporting a disability and a 10 per cent increased chance of being dead within five years.

"Unexpectedly, we also found that stable and good health and income were associated with expecting a greater decline compared with those in poor health or with low incomes," said Lang. "Moreover, we found that higher income was related to greater risk of disability."

[ More Geekquinox: Another newly discovered asteroid whizzes by Earth ]

The lesson I seem to be picking up from this study is to simply manage expectations. If you think life will suck a decade down the road, you should be happy in 10 years when you are still kicking and free from major health problems. Always being worried bad stuff will happen seems to be the key to survival when it does happen.

"These findings shed new light on how our perspectives can either help or hinder us in taking actions that can help improve our chances of a long health life," said Lang.

I guess we're going to be hearing the comedy stylings of Larry David for a long time to come. We'll also have to put up with the French for a while because a 2011 BVA-Gallup International survey found them to have the most miserable expectations for the future. So long, Richard Simmons!

The week in silly studies is a feature that appears each Tuesday.
It is not intended to mock real science.

For all the latest in science and weather,
follow @ygeekquinox on Twitter.