In the palette of human temperament, a rose-colored view of the future is the dominant hue, regardless of culture or nationality.
This sense of hope boosts consumer confidence, creates market bubbles and spurs irrational exuberance. "We don't know whether optimistic people are dumber or better than pessimistic people," said Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania, who helped pioneer the study of positive psychology.
Far from deforming our view of the future, this penchant for life's silver lining shapes our decisions about family, health, work and finances in surprisingly prudent ways, concluded economists at Duke University in a new study published in the Journal of Financial Economics. "Economists have focused on optimism as a miscalibration, as a distorted view of the future," said Duke finance scholar David T. Robinson. "A little bit of optimism is associated with a lot of positive economic choices."
Optimists, the Duke finance scholars discovered, worked longer hours every week, expected to retire later in life, were less likely to smoke and, when they divorced, were more likely to remarry. They also saved more, had more of their wealth in liquid assets, invested more in individual stocks and paid credit-card bills more promptly. "Optimism is more like red wine," said Duke finance professor and study co-author Manju Puri. "In moderation, it is good for you; but no one would suggest you drink two bottles a day."
For the first time, scientists at New York University (NYU) have mapped the upbeat brain--finding in a cluster of neurons the size of a martini olive the seed of a sunny outlook on life. At its core, the brain is built for optimism, their work suggests.
Mapping brain behavior with an fMRI medical imaging scanner, NYU neuroscientists Talia Sharot and Elizabeth Phelps identified the neural networks underlying this optimistic outlook. These rosy thoughts triggered one key brain region most strongly. Called the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, this neural nub is active whenever we think of hopes and aspirations. "This region of the cortex may actually be taking information and transforming it in a way that creates this optimism bias," Dr. Phelps said.
"If even half the time our actions work out well, our life is going to turn out for the better," Dr. Phelps said. "If you are pessimistic, you are unlikely to even try."
The influence of optimism on human behavior is so pervasive that it must have survival value, researchers speculate, and may give us the ability to act in the face of uncertain odds. Indeed, the researchers suspect that the breakdown of this brain network may contribute to clinical depression.
All in all, Dr. Seligman said, optimists tend to do better in life than their talents alone might suggest.
Source: Science Journal, The Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2007