The optimism Bias: Is the Human Brain Hardwired For Hope?
The human brain works in strange ways. If something affects us even minimally our mind tends to keep a ‘record’ of it. We conveniently forget the little things that do not affect us. For example you are very less likely to remember your friend heading to the bathroom to take a bath, till the day he starts stinking, forcing you to ponder upon the same. The brain subconsciously filters out information that it considers useless, to keep track of the things that do matter. Our memories evolve with us. What might have been an insignificant moment at a certain time becomes precious later. Memories and emotions are bound to intertwine. We tend to see things as they suit us best.
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Our reality is only our perception of things. Researchers at Stanford have found that computers are, infact, better judges of a person than his own friends. The research involved analysing facebook ‘likes’ to judge a person on personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. It is not surprising that we tend to be less critical of our own friends than of others. Objectivity always suffers at the hands of emotions.
The optimism bias is an inherent trait in all of us. We tend to believe …show more content…
The alternative to optimism is not pessimism, it is realism. We don’t always need to dwell on the worst-case scenarios, just admit to ourselves that often, bad things do happen, and that if they do happen to us, we must be prepared for them. Optimism training and the likes are no solution to any of our problems. We cannot, like little children, wish them away. The solution lies in a clear vision and commitment to action. Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society.It has been said that the optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. But you don’t need to be on either end of the spectrum to be successful or
The human brain works in strange ways. If something affects us even minimally our mind tends to keep a ‘record’ of it. We conveniently forget the little things that do not affect us. For example you are very less likely to remember your friend heading to the bathroom to take a bath, till the day he starts stinking, forcing you to ponder upon the same. The brain subconsciously filters out information that it considers useless, to keep track of the things that do matter. Our memories evolve with us. What might have been an insignificant moment at a certain time becomes precious later. Memories and emotions are bound to intertwine. We tend to see things as they suit us best.
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Our reality is only our perception of things. Researchers at Stanford have found that computers are, infact, better judges of a person than his own friends. The research involved analysing facebook ‘likes’ to judge a person on personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. It is not surprising that we tend to be less critical of our own friends than of others. Objectivity always suffers at the hands of emotions.
The optimism bias is an inherent trait in all of us. We tend to believe …show more content…
The alternative to optimism is not pessimism, it is realism. We don’t always need to dwell on the worst-case scenarios, just admit to ourselves that often, bad things do happen, and that if they do happen to us, we must be prepared for them. Optimism training and the likes are no solution to any of our problems. We cannot, like little children, wish them away. The solution lies in a clear vision and commitment to action. Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society.It has been said that the optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. But you don’t need to be on either end of the spectrum to be successful or