In this study, researchers at the Human Population Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., followed 5,286 people over 28 years and found that those who were regulars at religious services, particularly women, had statistically significant lower rates of mortality. These individuals, when questioned at the study's conclusion, tended to report that they smoked less, exercised more, had more social contacts, and were more likely to have remained married than those who attended services rarely or not at all. Intervening variables probably underlie the relationship between a variety of emotional and behavioral factors and physical health. Even the well-established placebo effect illustrates the connection between expectation or peace of mind and at least the perception of improved health. Anything that makes people more relaxed, confident, and optimistic could produce healthful results, or at least a transient respite from suffering, as Robin Williams in the movie Patch Adams showed when he stuck a rubber bulb on his nose and cheered young cancer patients.
Studies linking optimism to signs of improved health are marvelously eclectic.
Among the most clever was the dissertation project of Suzanne Segerstrom , now an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. But unlike Koenig's finding that incremental increases in blood pressure were of clinical import, Segerstrom says that the slight elevations in immune response she detected do not necessarily translate into significant differences in health. It was probably inevitable that someone would link optimism to religiosity. Martin Seligman , professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, did so, discovering that fundamentalists tend to be more optimistic compared to other religious groups. 8 Researchers have scrutinized the reverse link, between depression and poor health, since 1937.