Optimism or pessimism are caused by genes

If you always feel that everyday life is just a chain of misfortune and nothing to hope for, maybe your father and mother are the reason for passing on a gene that determines this.

Children with two long 5-HTTLPR gene versions will become optimistic.Photo: Daily Mail.

University of Essex psychologist Elaine Fox (He said: 'We have just found evidence that a genetic modification makes people tend to look at the positive side of life.' Invite 97 participants to a test and analyze their genes to find 5-HTTLPR, a gene that regulates serotonin levels associated with positive emotions.

The results show that most of them have two short 5-HTTLPR versions or one short version and one long version. But there are 16 people who only own the long version.

The team photographed the supposedly positive things (like chocolate, roses), negatively (like poisonous spiders, deserts) and neutral (newspaper, pen). The photos are arranged in pairs, in which each pair has a positive or negative image with a neutral image. Elaine asked the volunteers to see the pairs of photos and choose the photos they liked. She found that 16 people with two long versions chose positive images and avoided negative images, while the others chose negative or neutral images.

Many previous studies have shown that optimism promotes health, while pessimists often have health problems, from chronic headaches, mental disorders, heart attacks to strokes. But according to Professor Elaine, although genes play an important role, each person's living situation has a great influence on character formation.

'You cannot be optimistic if you have to live with pessimists. On the contrary, we can turn into an optimistic person by a simple formula: avoid contact with the person or the charismatic body, just chat with people who always work hard in life and think of at least 3 things extreme every day '.

Gene and lifestyle also play a role in disease formation. However, optimists tend to listen to the doctor's instructions, while pessimists often ignore. Optimistic spirit also helps us reduce stress, so that the immune system works more effectively. The discovery by Professor Elaine Fox also helps us explain why some people always see things in a positive mood, even in the worst situations.