Harvard Scientists Have Found That Pessimists - Like Lewis, Mark and PJ - Live Shorter Lives

Two funny points to note with this thread

1) it's authored by someone who makes 15 negative posts on this board daily.

2) the author cites the same "woke, liberal, elitist" university that he's tried to discredit on this board 100 times before.

Yes, Candy, crappy studies do make it into the public domain all the time, with their erroneous or unfounded conclusions touted as factual, especially if they're interesting and/or appealing. What usually happens is that such studies attract attention and spark multiple follow-up studies. Incorrect or unsupported conclusions don't survive this process. That what I love about academia: it's self-correcting.

Longitudinal studies are inherently weak for many reasons, especially "attrition bias." Subjects drop out, so your final sample is skewed toward those who stuck with the study until its completion. As per my quality of life remark, someone willing to be tracked for decades will have a particular mindset that may not be representative of the overall population--thus, the sample becomes biased as time goes on.

Psychological researchers use longitudinal studies quite a lot, but ethics concerns crop up more and more these days. The only worthwhile longitudinal psychological study would be one with a small number of participants who are evaluated by trained psychologists. But many consider that too intrusive. Thus the send out questionnaires to a whole bunch of people method.

The stated hypothesis for this study, given its method, must have been something like "There is a significant correlation between optimism/pessimism and lifespan." Now, many laymen would say something like, "Well, of course optimistic people live longer," which in and of itself endangers the validity of the study. Researchers are supposed to be neutral about their hypothesis, but they often are themselves biased, so they choose methodology that is biased or subject to bias.

Hell, I would challenge the presumed conclusion based on quite a few thoughts. Do optimistic soldiers live longer? Firefighters? Cops? Would you rather be operated on by an optimistic or a pessimistic doctor? Who had a greater covid survival rate, those pessimists who wore masks and avoided others, or those optimists who said, "I won't catch it"? Do pessimistic drivers who wear seat belts and observe speed limits live longer than optimistic drivers who smoke a doob while getting a handjob from their girlfriends (suggests a fascinating potential study)? 

As you, I, and PJ, and everyone else who reads this thread know, David didn't care about this topic at all and merely wanted to pitch insults. Nonetheless, it sparked an interesting discussion, and it's enjoyable talking to you about it. I like it that we've subverted David's intent and turned his petty little insult thread into an adult discussion. 

Oh, and General Lee and everyone in the Army of Northern Virginia was an optimist at Gettysburg. Only General Longstreet said that Pickett's Charge would fail and be a bloodbath. Thousands died in half an hour. Yet, there are fifty times as many Lee statues as Longstreet statues in the South.

Time for me to have an optimistic omelet. Let me know if you want the recipe 😀

Yeah, I noticed that, too, and was laughing at him for it. It also made me think the study was either nonexistent or had been discredited. Would he have chosen Harvard as a source if the stated conclusion had been reached by literally ANYBODY else?? And of course, not a scientific journal...a student newspaper.

Nonetheless, this thread has been fun. I had a serious and enjoyable discussion with Candy and we all got to mock David. Life doesn't get much better than that 😄😄😄😄😄

Please know that I strived to not "mock" anybody.  

Candy

Yes. That's fine. But he mocked himself with his thread subject, thread title, and thread purpose. I too swerved away from pointing out what a stupid jerkass he is and instead decided to treat his topic with a seriousness it didn't deserve. That might be the best way to, well, neuter him...is that better?

I have observed, though, that despite your always treating him with the utmost civility, he's thrown shit at you numerous times, like a chimpanzee at the zoo. He doesn't deserve your respect.

And to return to his topic for a moment: David sure as hell ain't no optimist!!! 😛😛😛

   Two definitions for you; (1) Optimist (which I am) -hopeful and confident about the future, -  (2) Pessimist ( which Lewis is) - a person who thinks that bad things are more likely to happen or who emphasizes the bad part of a situation

An optimist would not start fifteen negative threads every day.