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Optimism and the truth

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Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi everybody,

Here's an APA Monitor on Psychology summary (Dec., 2011) of a recent study in Nature Neuroscience.


“Born optimists may be able to maintain their rosy outlooks because of a glitch in how they process negative information, according to a study led by a psychologist at University College London.  The researchers gave 19 participants a quiz designed to measure optimism.  They then asked the participants to estimate the likelihood that they would experience a bad event, such as a car theft.  The researchers than told the participants the real likelihood of the event.  Using fMRI, the researchers found that when this news was good—the bad event was less likely than the participants had thought—the participants changed their estimates to be even more positive, and showed correlated activity in their frontal lobe as they made the change.  But when the news was bad, the more optimistic participants didn’t tend to revise their estimates to be more in line with the truth, and the activity in their frontal lobes suggested that they were not processing the bad news as efficiently as their less optimistic peers.  (Nature Neuroscience, Oct. 9)”

Comments?


Richard

teartracks:
Dr. G.,

Born optimists.  

My father was a pessimist. He swore that if he reached the end of the rainbow, he'd find a basket full of cow dung or worse.  He had experienced scarcity throughout his childhood and except that he and his siblings were skilled hunters, they would have gone hungry often.  Mom on the other hand, though poor, was an optimist and seemingly had no sense of scarcity or lack.  Her parents provided adequately for her and her sisters during childhood.  It would be hard to measure how their backgrounds influenced pessimism/optimism.  

I am an optimist.  On a conscious level, I think the way my brain organizes what it sees as reality (mine) in the world we live in and in the universe at large determines my outlook/optimism. It  tells me that all there is by its very nature is largely hidden from me and others that study and make predictions.  Therefore, the end result is that my guess is as reliable as (not superior to) theirs.  Exploring and examining the nooks and crannies of life  expecting previously hidden things to be revealed is an exciting constant for me, whether good or bad.  That’s how it is now after experiencing hell on earth from 2001 to 2008.    

In mid life and thereafter, the other player, which grew over time to overshadow all else is my faith in God. I can’t explain it fully.  I don’t experience it physiologically, but it is as real as if I could.  I reach out/cry out/consult Him in meditation and prayer throughout my days.  I believe He is sovereign and benevolent.  The opiate of the people?  The gilding of optimism?  I don't know.  There is a saying, I've been rich and I've been poor.  Rich is better.  That's how it is with my faith.  I've gone without it, (even abandoned it once) and I've had it.  Having it is better.  :)

Would I have the same level of optimism if I didn't believe in God?  I don't know.   My dad was a passionate believer in God.  My mom was rather stoic about it.  He was the pessimist.  She the optimist.  Left to guess, I expect genetics and early environment (as often appears to be the case) are the main determinates.  

Speaking of the God influence, I'm remembering your thread several years ago about the 'discovery' of a 'God' gene.  :lol:

tt

BonesMS:
Interesting.....where does Nature plus Nurture fit in?

Bones

SilverLining:
I'm having trouble comprehending the study from the summary.  First the partipants are asked for an estimate of the probability of an event.  Then they are given the "real" statistic.  Then they revise their estimate.   Once they have the real information, why are they re-estimating?   But I can understand where this is going.  The notion of a "processing glitch" makes sense to me.   

BonesMS:
I guess what confuses me is what if a participant has actually experienced a negative event, e.g. a car theft?  Would that affect their optimism?

Bones

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