The Television programme Horizon followed constantly fretting, pessimistic and Catastrophising thinker Oxford Physicist Michael Molesy on a journey to find out whether our personalities are fixed or whether they are pliable.

The ambitious task to change the mind and in part help enable Molesy, a chronic Insomniac, to get a good night sleep was also part of the enquiry.

The show started with an experiment carried out forty years ago in Oxford, Ohio where 1000 over fifties signed up to take part in an experiment to find out whether life expectancy was related to an individual’s outlook.

The data ended up in Yale University, where the death records showed that those with a sunnier disposition and a more positive outlook on life lived on average seven and a half years longer than the pessimists.

This led to ask the question, what can you do if you are naturally more pessimistic and can you change your outlook?

Is there an objective way to measure our personality is a good place to start.

This is one of the hottest areas in scientific research at the moment.

One place carrying out these experiments is in the Essex University. Elaine Fox who is a Neuroscientist there explained that by measuring levels of electrical activity on the two sides of the brain whilst resting, studies have shown that people who are prone to pessimism, neurosis and anxiety tend to have greater activity on the right side of their frontal cortex than their left.

This is known as Cerebral Asymmetry. We know it happens but we still do not know why.

Molesy donned a cap full of electrodes and proceeded to press a button on a control pad every time dots appeared on a screen seconds before a smiling or angry face appeared. The idea being that it would test for unconscious bias to positive or negative things. If every time the dot appeared and a smiling face appeared milliseconds after, his reaction would be recorded and compared to when a angry face appeared. If you are pessimistic you reactions are quicker when you spot an angry face.

We tend to focus on what is on our mind and then we search for confirmation that we are right.

The test showed that he naturally had three times more activity in the right frontal areas of the brain. This suggests that he has a brain that is tuned to the ‘negative side’.

After the tests, Molesy said he believed Elaine was just being diplomatic and then suggested that might be just paranoia! A Classic response to back up his results and from someone with a negative filter.

A brain that is hyper aware to things that can go wrong leads to increased stress and anxiety.

And it’s more than just a state of mind. It’s also powerfully connected to how your body responds.

As a way to demonstrate this Molesy volunteers to do Karaoke which despite being in front of the camera in his current role, petrified him.

When he got up to sing he froze and could not sing.

He said that previously he had asked himself what would happen if he froze and that he mentioned that in his mind all he could see in his mind’s eye was the whites of the audiences’ eyes and this filled him with horror.

This all demonstrates quite nicely how negative thoughts can actually effect human physiology and how integrated the mind and body really are. It also shows that through our genes and conditioning that we are wired to be either more negative or positive.

But what can we do about it even if we are prone to be more negative? Are our genes fixed in so much that we are stuck with what we have? Is it possible that we could we be suffering physically and mentally as a result of these negative thoughts, but not be consciously aware of it? Please lookout for part 2 to find out why all is not as it appears and that change really is possible.