London - Feeling blue? You’ll be urged to cheer up, hope for the best - and look on the bright side of life.
But while thinking positive thoughts can boost your mood in the here and now, it could actually cause unhappiness in the long term, research suggests.
A team of scientists found that having cheerful fantasies - so-called wishful thinking - ends up increasing depressive symptoms.
Although thinking positive can make us feel good for a while,it does nothing to tackle the causes of unhappiness, the scientists found.
In fact, their tests showed the more that people positively fantasised about the future, making them feel good at the time, the worse they felt later on.
For example, students who felt better after being asked to think positively about exams ended up doing less work for their university courses, and both their marks and their mood suffered as a result.
Meanwhile, those who feared the worst-possible outcomes for their courses ended up working harder - and doing better.
Lead researcher Professor Gabriele Oettingen from New York University said: “Our findings suggest that as pleasurable and helpful as positive fantasies are for depressive moods in the moment, they can be problematic and cumbersome over time.”
The researchers tested adults and children, and followed up with further questions over periods between one month and seven months after the initial session. In one study, they found that adults who had more positive thoughts about the future had lower scores on a scale measuring depressive symptoms – that is, at that moment, they seemed to be happier than their peers.
But when they completed the scale again one month later, they showed higher depressive symptoms in comparison to those who were more gloomy at first.
A study of 109 children found similar results. Those who reported positive fantasies had fewer depressive symptoms at the initial session. But seven months later, they felt sadder in comparison to youngsters who initially tended to see the negative side.
Professor Oettingen said further research would be needed to determine whether there is a direct causal link between thinking positive and depressive symptoms in the long term. But the findings suggest they are a risk factor for depressed moods over time. The researchers argued that concentrating on positive fantasies may prevent people from acknowledging obstacles that stand in the way of reaching their goals and working out ways to overcome them.
And Professor Oettingen said the results, published in the journal Psychological Science, could be important in light of the focus on positive thinking in the self-help industry.
“The modern era is marked by a push for ever-positive thinking, and the self-help market fuelled by a reliance on such positive thinking is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow,” she said.
“Our findings raise questions of how costly this market may be for people’s long-term wellbeing and for society as a whole.” She added: “Positive fantasies must be complemented with a good sense of reality.”
Daily Mail