To understand why someone becomes an optimist or a pessimist, it helps to understand what distinguishes them. Say you crash your car. Do you expect good things to happen after the accident-- an easy recuperation, a fat check from your insure? Or do you worry that your neck will hurt forever? “Optimistic people tend to feel that bad things won’t last long and won’t affect other parts of life”, researcher Seligman says. “Pessimists tend to believe one negative incident will list and undermine everything else in their lives.” What’s more, he says, is the story they construct abut why things happen-- their explanatory style is different. Optimists believe that bad events have temporary causes-- “The boss is in a bad mood.” Pessimists believe the cause is permanent --- “The boss is a jerk.” This sense of control distinguishes one type from the other. Positive thinkers feel powerful. Negative thinkers, Seligman says, feel helpless because they have learned to believe they are incapable of handing household finances might later become a divorced woman who cannot balance a checkbook. Such learned helplessness causes much harm on health. What’s more, pessimists do not believe in preventive care. Visit a doctor and you might find out you are sick! My father was rushed to the emergency room for medical conditions that would have been easily treatable if he had seen a doctor sooner. Compared to these, studies show that optimists are better at coping with the distress associated with everything from sore throat to heart surgery. Furthermore, scientist at UCLA discovered that optimistic have more disease-fighting cells.