Sorrows ‘don’t stop people from seeing a brighter future,’ research shows

TERRIBLE events don’t stop people from seeing a brighter future... but retirement might, according to a new study.

Researchers discovered that traumatic life events – such as divorce or the death of a partner, parent or child – do not change the way people view their future as expected. They found people have hopes for the future until they reach 60 or 70 – retirement age – and faced with growing health-related concerns, realise the good ol’ days are behind them.

Dr William Chopik, of Michigan State University in the US, said:

“We found that optimism continued to increase throughout young adulthood, seemed to steadily plateau and then decline into older adulthood.

“Even people with fairly bad circumstances, who have had tough things happen in their lives, look to their futures and life ahead and felt optimistic.”

The researchers surveyed 75,000 American, German and Dutch people between the ages of 16 and 101 to determine how they saw the future panning out, the largest study of its kind.

Major life events including marriage, divorce, employment, retirement, changes in health and the loss of a loved one, which usually brighten or darken people’s lives were examined.

Dr Chopik said: “We found that really hard things like deaths and divorce really didn’t change a person’s outlook to the future.

“This shows that a lot of people likely subscribe to the ‘life is short’ mantra and realise they should focus on things that make them happy and maintain emotional balance.”

People became more optimistic from the age of 15 to around 60 or 70, regardless of circumstances, the researchers found.

Dr Chopik said: “There’s a massive stretch of life during which you keep consistently looking forward to things and the future.

“Part of that has to do with experiencing success both in work and life.”

Dr Chopik added: “You find a job, you meet your significant other, you achieve your goals and so on. You become more autonomous and you are somewhat in control of your future; so, you tend to expect things to turn out well.”

Optimism about the future starts to decline as people enter the “elderly phase of life”, although not “full-fledge pessimists”, the researchers also found.

Realising the bulk of life is behind you and growing health-related concerns, could explain the fall.

Dr Chopik added: “We oftentimes think that the really sad or tragic things that happen in life completely alter us as people, but that’s not really the case.

“You don’t fundamentally change as a result of terrible things; people diagnosed with an illness or those who go through another crisis still felt positive about the future and what life had ahead for them on the other side.”

The findings were published in the Journal of Research in Personality.