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CrowdScience: Which is better: Optimism or pessimism?

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Which is better: optimism or pessimism?

26/11/2021 GMT

Which is better: Optimism or pessimism?

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Which is better: Optimism or pessimism?

Is being optimistic really the best way to live your life?

Listener Hannah from Germany - a self-described pessimist - is intrigued as to whether the alternative, optimistic way of life is really the best way to be.

In most cultures, the soundtrack to our lives is one of optimism. We are told to aim for the stars, dream big and believe that tomorrow will definitely be a better day. But why do so many people subscribe to the cult of 'glass half full' when life’s hardships should make any reasonable person a bit more wary? 

Listener Hannah from Germany - a self-described pessimist - is intrigued as to whether the optimistic way of life is really the best way to be. Taking on the challenge is Marnie Chesterton, who finds out why 80% of the population have an optimism bias and how the ability to hope and take risks may have helped the human species get where it is today. She also meets a man who pushes the optimistic outlook to its very limits - Base jumping world champion, Espen Fadnes. Listener Hannah on the other hand looks into the psychology of pessimism to find out if there are any advantages to her less rose-tinted view on life - and whether the culture we grow up in shapes how realistically we see the world.

Producer: Caroline Steel 
Presentet: Marnie Chesterton

Contributors:
Espen Fadnes – Freefall professional
Tali Sharot – Professor of neuroscience, UCL
Julie Norem - Professor of psychology, Wellesley College
Jeanne Tsai - Professor of psychology, Stanford

(Image: Two arrows, one with a sad smiley and the other with happy smiley, pointing in opposite directions. Credit: Getty Images)

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