The Science of Optimism

Paul Hawkins, the Chief Combobulator at renowned innovation firm Crazy Might Work and graduate of the Neuro-Leadership Institute, shares with us the benefits of optimism and how we can have even more of it in our lives.

“Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

Whilst this advice seems a little trite, science is now telling us that optimism may not only make us feel better in the present, but also have long term implications for health and success in life.

One of Boston University’s premier clinical psychologists and experts in aging, stress and lifespan health, Lewina Lee, has evidence to support this.

The results from Lewina’s recent study showed that optimism is specifically related to an 11 to 15% longer life span, as well as greater odds of achieving exceptional longevity (living to the age of 85 or beyond).

Previous studies supposed that this could be explained by the fact that positive people simply made healthier choices, but science has since shown that positive emotions have an equally profound effect our immunity and short-term health.

And it’s not just your health that will benefit from optimism. Analysis of over 300 studies involving more than 275,000 participants (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005) shows that, regardless of whether you define success as a satisfying marriage, a larger salary or better health, optimism plays an important role in achieving it!

Why are we like this?

So, if the science tells us that optimism is simply better for you, why is it so easy for some of us to fall into slightly pessimistic views of the world?

The answer, it turns out, is at least partly genetic - not in the sense of DNA passed down from your parents - but in how our human brains are wired. Because the primary goal of the brain is to keep us safe and alive, it tends to prioritise negative information (because it might be life-threatening) over positive signals.

According to research by Fredrickson and Losada (2005), this weighting is so pronounced that a ratio of three positive ideas to one negative idea is required to keep us in an ‘optimistic-enough’ frame of mind to experience the health and other benefits associated with it. The same research also suggests that, in order to be ‘high-performing’ a team must demonstrate even higher ratios of positive to negative communication - in the order of 6:1!

How to optimise your thinking

Dr. Martin Seligman, Director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and the ‘father of positive psychology’ has explained how optimists and pessimists think differently when faced with challenging situations.

He noticed that the groups have noticeably divergent ‘explanatory styles’, referring to the way that they describe the adverse events. For example, when faced with adversity, pessimists tend to describe these events in ways that suggest their problems as:

1.       Permanent (“I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel”)

2.       Pervasive (“there’s no escape!”)

3.       Personal (“it’s all my fault”)

Optimists, on the other hand, tend to view and describe adverse events as:

1.       Temporary (“Oh well - It’ll pass!”)

2.       Isolated (“Everything is going well in the other areas of my life”)

3.       Arbitrary (“Never mind – this could have happened to anybody”).

However, if you share the view of economist Donald Kaberuka: “I’m not interested in whether the glass is half empty or half full. I'm interested in figuring out how to fill the glass." Then there is good news- your brain can be retrained to be more optimistic! Seligman recommends keeping a journal and recording moments of pessimism, using an ABC format:

a)       Notice when you are feeling down and what you perceive as the cause of your Adversity;

b)      Record what you Believe about the behaviour or event makes it so unpleasant; and

c)       Imagining the long-term Consequences of these beliefs on your life and actions.

Seeing this in writing helps to highlight the subjectivity of your interpretations and creates the opportunity to try out some alternate explanations. So, unsurprisingly, Seligman has two more letters up his sleeve:

d)      Dispute the limiting beliefs and come up with an alternative explanation for the adversity.

e)      Notice what Energy the alternate produces – does it create a more optimistic outlook, or make you want to take different, more positive actions? If so, try adopting it and see what happens!