Optimists are nostalgic about the future. ~Chicago Tribune
In the 1960s, Martin Seligman ran an experiment. He took three dogs and put each one in a harness. The first dog received mild electric shocks that could be stopped by pressing a lever. The second dog received the same shock as the first dog but was helpless to do anything about it. The third dog was the control and did not receive a shock.
The next day Seligman put each of the dogs in a box with a very small rail, one they could easily jump over. Again he delivered a shock to each dog, but this time there was no lever to press to stop the shock. The first dog jumped out of the box. So did the third dog. The surprising part of the experiment is what the second dog did … nothing. He just sat there, helpless.
The experiment and variations of it have been performed many times with many different animals, including humans. The result is always the same. The animals (humans included) quickly learn to be helpless.
This story is told by Seligman in his book
“Learned Optimism.” I read the book years ago but it has been on my mind the past few months because of the state of the American economy. Unemployment rates are at levels few of us have seen before. Friends of mine who are unemployed feel like they will never find jobs. With all of the negative news, I wonder if we are learning helplessness because of this economy.
It is an important question to ask because research shows that optimism, the alternative to helplessness and the pessimism it brings, actually improves your health. One of Seligman’s graduate students did a study with rats and cancer cells. She duplicated his original experiment with rats instead of dogs, and made a modification to it by implanting cancer cells in each rat. Under normal conditions, 50 percent of them rejected the tumor. In her experiment, the rats that felt in control rejected the tumor 70 percent of the time. The “helpless” rats rejected the tumor just 27 percent of the time. Optimistic rats were healthier rats.
The moral of the story is that if the economy makes you feel helpless, that helplessness could make you less effective at fighting off sickness.
If you find yourself feeling helpless with your current situation, I highly recommend Seligman’s book. It contains another part of the story that I haven’t told you. As the experiments were repeated numerous times, a small percentage of the dogs did not exhibit the helpless response. These dogs had characteristics very similar to the human trait of optimism. That led Seligman to spend a lifetime studying optimism, and what his research has found is that you can learn to be optimistic. Learning to be optimistic can make you healthier, as numerous studies have shown that optimistic people are generally healthier and deal better with chronic diseases.
We live in tough times, and those tough times could actually make you sicker. But they don’t have to. Be “nostalgic about your future.” Not only will it make you happier, it will make you healthier, too.
photo by: pasotraspaso
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
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