Positive language and its effects on health

Danner et al collected written stories from nuns as they enter their religious life. They found a positive correlation between the positive affect language and complexity of sentences used in the stories with the longevity of the nuns. This seems to suggest that positive affect is correlated with better health behaviors. A model that explains such mechanisms is shown below. Positive affect influences directly both probability of doing exercise and also longevity. We also know that doing exercise positively influences longevity. These are independent effects.


Positive emotion co-occurs with negative emotion in the context of stress. An interesting finding is that positive emotions has beneficial effects independent of negative emotion effects.