Purpose. Concerns about negative psychological effects of screening are prevalent. We aimed at exploring the possible impact of cardiovascular screening and risk information on lay people's anticipations of their own longevity. Methods. From a population based sample (n=11,291) invited to an assessment of cardiovascular risk factors 754 high risk individuals and 1,000 low risk individuals (34% females) were identified. Shortly after the assessment in 2002 they received comprehensive written information about their risk status. In April 2003 they were mailed a questionnaire and first informed about the mean life expectancy for Norwegian women and men. Subsequently they were asked whether they expected to live longer (optimistic response), shorter (pessimistic response) or about as long (neutral response) as the mean figures. Associations between anticipated longevity, cardiovascular risk and other independent variables were analysed in multinomial logistic regression models. Results: The response rate was 80%. Whereas 216/1357 (16%) expected to live shorter than the mean, 204/1357 (15%) expected to live longer. High risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) increased the likelihood of pessimistic responses (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1 – 1.9) and decreased the likelihood of optimistic responses (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2 – 0.5). These figures did not change significantly in multivariate regression models adjusting for age, sex, marital status, length of education and several health related variables. Other predictors of pessimistic responses were age < 50 (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.7 – 4.4), family history of premature CVD (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.6 – 3.3 ) and psychiatric symptoms (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 – 2.4), whereas male gender was associated with optimistic responses (OR 1.8 95% CI 1.2 – 2.8). Analysis of first order interactions indicated that people with an established diagnosis of CVD and well educated people were more sensitive to the high risk label as the likelihood of pessimistic responses increased in these subgroups (OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.7 – 6.3 and OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.4 – 5.5, respectively). Conclusions: In terms of anticipated longevity a high CVD risk label was associated with pessimism. However, this association was not strong, and the majority of the respondents remained unaffected by the risk information. These results suggest that respondent characteristics as well as the risk information per se should be emphasized as potential predictors of psychological reactions to a high risk label.