Deductive Essay Sample on Optimism and Pessimism

pessimist and optimist

According to some researches, people, who are optimistic, tend to live longer. But the reality turns out to be that optimism and pessimism bring positive features depending on this or that situation.

The way people anticipate their future and accept everything around them, can have a direct impact on their longevity and health. In other words, both pessimism and optimism can influence your mental and physical well-being. But the question is what type of attitude is the best for you?

Whether you can call yourself a pessimist or an optimist, the answer lies in one of the most recent researches. According to the recent studies, optimistic viewpoints lead to a better longevity, while the others have a completely opposite point of view – that pessimism keeps preserving your health. Besides, it’s usually depends on your age category and the circumstances you’re in. For instance, young individuals are known to have more idealistic viewpoints. Old people, on the other hand, tend to experience life with a more referenced and down-to-earth approach that can take as pessimistic to people, who preserve their ideals.

As revealed by the study published in 2009, optimists are the ones, who tend to live longer than their pessimistic ‘counterparts’ due to the decreased chance of heart diseases. The research reviewed 97 253 females of the age category over 50. They participated in the Women’s Health Initiative. The study has shown the most optimistic ladies were 30% less likely to die because of a heart disease. At the same time, 14% of females were less likely to die from any cause throughout the study period. Nonetheless, the experts noted that it might have been a typical lifestyle of these jolly individuals that explained the association with the decreased risk of a heart disease rather than just an optimist as it is: probably the individuals, who are more positive tend to exercise more, as well as retain solid social networks. Hilary Tindle, the study author, has pointed out that positive people also have excellent social relationships that help handling stress. At the same time, the others have argued that the representatives of the ‘realists’ category appeared to be more prepared to the life’s toughs.

Speaking about the advantages of both issues, one should mention that there are no individuals, who are 100% optimists or pessimists. People tend to balance within different attitudes, while the research has shown people usually pick this or that side depending on which is more functional in this or that situation. According to the results of the Northwestern University, there was a range of advantages to both a pessimistic and an optimistic standpoint – both worldviews are equally functional. The authors of the study also pointed out that individuals are always somewhere in between, which proves the advantages of both issues.

What side you prefer to internalize also depends on where your motivation comes from; individuals, who were initially concerned with advancement or growth, tended to stand on the positive side of the road, while the ones concerned with the security or safety issues concentrated on pessimism to boost performance.

Pessimists are reported to always search for the errors or imperfections in the line of thinking in order to become better. However, optimists tend to fare better in the situations, where the ability to never give up may guarantee a superior progress in contrast to the individuals, who concentrate on the things that might go wrong.

Of course, we can be alert in some situations or shut our eyes to the reality in others, but using both pessimism and optimism thoroughly is the right way to keep the life balance.

References:

  • Ellsberg, Daniel (1961), Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms,”Quarterly Journal of Economics, 75: 643-669.
  • Ergin, Haluk and Faruk Gul (2009), A Theory of Subjective Compound Lotteries,”Journal of Economic Theory, 144(3): 899-929.
  • Brunnermeier, Markus K. and Jonathan Parker (2005), Optimal Expectations,”American Economic Review, 95(4): 1092-1118.
  • Chatterjee, Kalyan and R. Vijay Krishna (2009), A `Dual Self’ Representation for Stochastic Temptation,”American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 1:  148-167.
  • Grant, Simon and Edi Karni (2005), Why Does It Matter that Beliefs and Valuations be Correctly Represented?” International Economic Review 46: 917-934.
  • Grant, Simon, Ben Polak and Tomasz Strzalecki (2009), Second-Order Expected Utility,” mimeo.
  • Klibano , Peter, Massimo Marinacci and Sujoy Mukerji (2005), A Smooth Model of Decision Making Under Ambiguity “Econometrica 73(6): 1849-1892.
  • Pesendorfer, Wolfgang (2006), Behavioral Economics Comes of Age: A Review Essay on Advances in Behavioral Economics,” Journal of Economic Literature 44:  712-721.

Comments are closed.