London - It seems every one of us is naturally optimistic.
Even if we have a tendency to worry about the future, we still believe that everything is going to work out for the best.
Scientists found those of us who easily generate positive thoughts will confidently predict future happiness. But more unexpectedly, those who tend to imagine negative outcomes do not really expect grim times ahead.
Instead, researchers found we continue to believe we are destined for a pleasant outcome – because we dismiss the thought that these potential bad events could actually happen to us.
“People seem to ‘explain away’ the presence of bad possibilities, thinking that they won’t really occur,” said scientist Ed O’Brien, who carried out the research at the University of Michigan.
“But they have a harder time explaining the absence of good possibilities. The absence of good events in our future feels much worse than the presence of bad ones.”
The researchers explored whether fluency – how easily we think of positive or negative events – plays a role in our outlook on life. In a series of studies, they asked participants to complete surveys about past and possible future experiences and their perceptions of wellbeing.
In line with previous studies, the scientists found the easier it was for people to generate positive past experiences, the happier they claimed to have been.
Those who were more likely to recall negative past experiences, meanwhile, reported greater unhappiness during that period.
But interestingly, the same did not hold true when thinking about the future. Those who could easily imagine negative future events were no more likely to believe they faced an unhappy outlook than those who tended to imagine positive possibilities. - Daily Mail