Is your glass half full?

I love research which backs up my privately held beliefs and here’s one project that does just that.

We are, it seems, hard-wired to be optimistic!

The story is running on the ABC and BBC.

It’s true I am eternally optimistic. I can find the silver lining in the darkest cloud. I can bury my head in the sand and convince myself all will be well right up until the roof falls in – metaphorically of course! I also realise I can on occasion refuse to take action because I can’t believe something unpleasant or undesirable is going to happen. Very occasionally that means I learn one of life’s hard lessons but I’d rather be an optimist than a pessimist.

What about you? Are you a Chicken Little or a Cassandra? Or is life pretty darned good really.

Find the full story here:

The research is being done at The University College of London.
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10 thoughts on “Is your glass half full?

  1. Hi Sandy
    I have a new definition of purgatory – leaving in a small French village kilometers away from anywhere and with a diary full of meetings for the beginning of the school year. I’ve got to tell you – while my new car is really cute (for a family car), I would have been just as thrilled with an old holden providing it moved under its own steam. I was actually without a car, in practical terms, for over a month, in real terms for over three months (but for almost two months of that we were in Australia so they don’t really count). When my old (also much loved) car first broke down ( at a very convenient spot, just before a major roundabout, right outside its regular garage just on closing time – what a car!) I optimistically refused to believe that what appeared to be a broken fan belt could mean my car’s premature death. But because of various laws over here about replacement parts etc that ended up being the case. At one stage we even thought about transporting her to the UK, and getting her a heart transplant – I mean getting her engine remachined. But we ended up opting to get another car because other parts seemed to be on the blink as well. The next step was finding an automatic. I refuse to drive a manual in France, and the French refuse to drive automatics – voila! Le stand-off! We eventually (with the help of friends – I LOOVE my friends even more than I love my new car!), found a good, safe , reliable car, negotiated all the hurdles and sadly said goodbye to the old car who had done a stirling job over the last few year. In my optimistic moments, I focus on all the money I saved on petrol when I couldn’t drive …

  2. Sandy, she does indeed have a new car and I have been waiting weeks, maybe even months for photographic evidence of this!! I think she’s teasing us 🙂

  3. Bron, in reality you’re an pessimistic optimist? I think your motto could be the one about Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance! And you do that in style!

  4. Typical, I’m off at work slogging away and you guys are playing on the blog again!!

    Sandy, I too read it as Tarot to start with and wondered what card was going to be drawn from the pack. I like the idea of ‘cross that bridge’ – no point in planning for it until I’m about to cross!

  5. Hey Helene! Did you hear? Bron has a new car. Wonder if she likes it???? She didn’t say… You’d think after mentioning she has a NEW car she’d say whether she liked it or not. Sheesh!

  6. Hi Helene,

    I did wonder whether the researchers took probability into account. For example, given that Dad died at 93, and Mum is alive at 89, I think it highly probable that I will not die an early death from natural causes. However, as I live in France, where the accident rate for motor vehicles is relatively high, I think it probable that I will have a car accident sometime in the next few years (which is why my beautiful new car has ALL the safety features available) … So, does that make me an optimist, a pessimist, a realist or simply conflicted? Maybe I should be consulting Sandy’s good friend Dr Nutta??
    XXXX

    PS I loooove my car ….

  7. Oh dear, I’m looking at the article and my dyslexia reads Tali Sharot as Tarot! 🙂 I’m sure Freud would have something to say about that – or your good friend Dr Nutta.

    I tend to be an ‘I’ll cross that bridge if-and-when I come to it’ kind of person. Of course that doesn’t mean I won’t take action to avoid the bridge altogether. 🙂

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