He has said that being optimistic is wonderful because “it keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.” 10 Kahneman also believes that optimistic people, because they look at the world in a positive way, are more likely to be innovative and come up with creative solutions to society’s problems-which is why we tend to favor optimistic leaders. One of the most notable figures who has spoken extensively on the positive impact of optimism is the father of behavioral science himself, Daniel Kahneman. The phenomenon has become known as the optimism bias, which describes people’s tendency to underestimate the likelihood that they will experience negative events and overestimate the likelihood that good things will happen to them. He found that students thought their chances of experiencing a negative event was lower than that of their classmates, whereas they believed their chances of experiencing a positive event was higher than that of their classmates. Psychologist Neil Weinstein studied what he termed “unrealistic optimism” by asking college students to estimate their chances of experiencing a certain event, as well as those of their classmates. It wasn’t until 1980 that psychologists began to look at the other side of optimism: the negative impacts it has on our decision-making. Atkinson conducted various studies showing that children who were optimistic about their success led to greater engagement and continued interest in school material, and academic achievement. If someone feels optimistic about their likelihood to succeed, they actually become more motivated to work hard in that task. In the 1950s and 1960s, John William Atkinson developed the expectancy-value theory, which demonstrated that one’s expectations of success affects one’s motivation to complete a task. The term “optimism” has been around since 1710, when philosopher Gottfried Leibniz used it referring to the “best of all possible worlds.” 7 Learned optimism: a concept that describes how optimism can be practiced and learned over time, a process that can help maximize our wellbeing. Positive psychology concerns itself with things that can increase well-being.
Positive psychology: a branch of psychology that explores what characteristics and human behaviors allow individuals to lead meaningful and happy lives. Hindsight bias: our tendency to look back at unpredictable events and see them as easily predictable, as though it is obvious that the event was going to happen all along. Optimism bias: our tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive events and underestimate the likelihood of negative events occurring to us. the likelihood that doing something will lead to the desired outcome), and how much the individual values said desired outcome. This theory suggests that motivation for behavior is determined by two factors: expectancy of success (i.e.
“Įxpectancy-value theory: a theory first developed by John William Atkinson. Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of a glass-half-full attitude, and how optimism can help (or hinder) your everyday life. Instead of positioning people within a rigid dichotomy, with optimism on one side and pessimism on the other, we might think of optimism on a spectrum. How do we reconcile these contradictory views on optimism? There might be a happy medium. Research shows that optimism is linked to improved physical and mental health, including better sleep, reduced anxiety, and lower rates of depression.1 Positive psychology, a branch of psychology that focuses on what allows people to thrive and lead happy, healthy lives, tends to view optimism as a means of increasing one’s well-being. Equally, we might undertake risky behaviors like riding a bike without a helmet or driving under the influence, because we tell ourselves “bad things won’t happen to me.”īut it also goes without saying that optimism comes with plenty of advantages. This tendency leads us to engage in behaviors that may not be rational, such as not saving for an emergency fund or buying a lottery ticket, despite the odds of winning being very low. We often overestimate the likelihood of positive things happening to us and underestimate the likelihood of negative things happening to us. While not everyone feels quite this positive all of the time, in general, humans tend to be overly optimistic. They view their life from the perspective of a main character in a movie, trusting that somehow, things will work out. They’re a glass-half-full individual, always believing that good things will happen to them. We all know someone who always sees the positive side of a situation.
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