More positive emotions and better relationships Of course, it makes sense that having a sense of hope and positive attitude about the future would make us more content in the present. ![]() This all boosts the luscious feeling of anticipation, which is greater the more pleasurable the anticipated event, the more vividly we can imagine it, the more probable we think it is to happen, and the sooner it will be happening. But what is the mechanism here?Īs the University College London’s Tali Sharot explains, optimistic people are happier because they imagine positive events more vividly and expect them to occur sooner. More happinessĪs expected, optimists report being happier in life. Whether you’re looking to enhance your well-being, achieve your goals, or simply enjoy life more fully, the benefits of being optimistic are well worth exploring in this essay. So what can you expect as you begin to cultivate a more optimistic outlook on life? In this article, we’ll explore the research-backed optimism benefits and share practical tips for building a more positive mindset. This helps them build resilience and cope more effectively with adversity. They don’t ignore or deny negative experiences, but they do tend to focus more on positive ones. Do they simply sit back and wait for good things to happen to them? Or do they take more risks and end up getting hurt because they believe that everything will turn out okay in the end?Ĭontrary to these common misconceptions, the research on healthy optimism shows that optimistic individuals tend to approach life in a more balanced way. ![]() Further, results will be disseminated widely via the Imperfect Cognitions blog, a dedicated project website, and a Twitter feed.As you explore the benefits of optimism, you may wonder if optimists are setting themselves up for disappointment by having such high expectations. The project will have a number of scholarly outputs (four journal articles), and will give rise to one public engagement event and one two-day interdisciplinary conference on optimism. In particular, the question whether optimism promotes agents’ knowledge and moral behaviour has yet to be addressed systematically. Whereas there is already a vast empirical literature on the contributions of optimism to wellbeing, different forms of optimism have not been carefully distinguished, and this has prevented researchers from arriving at a clear, overall picture of the impact of optimism is on human agency. The second step will be to establish what costs and benefits a bias towards optimism can have, and consider its effects on wellbeing, genetic fitness, moral behaviour, and knowledge. The first step will be to distinguish between different forms of optimism and to discuss how they relate to one another. The empirical literature suggests that some forms of optimism can be good for us, helping us to achieve our goals and react positively to set backs, but other forms of optimism lead to disappointment or to excessively risky behaviour. The project aims to develop a new framework in which these findings can be interpreted. The project Lisa and Anneli will be working on asks whether it is beneficial or detrimental to be optimistic. ![]() The idea is to explore the theoretical, empirical, and practical dimensions of hope, optimism, and related states. Lisa Bortolotti and Anneli Jefferson have been awarded a 12-month non-residential fellowship as part of The Philosophy of Hope and Optimism funding initiative made possible by 3-year grant at the University of Notre Dame and Cornell University.
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