The Science of Optimism
Why Optimism is Essential for the Climate Movement
Optimism is a tricky thing. To many of us, it’s a word that’s lost its meaning. A “glass half empty or half full” kind of attitude that lacks depth. It’s also hard to be optimistic when there’s so much information out there proving the opposite. How can we be optimistic about climate change when all we hear on the news is how we’re racing into a climate disaster?
Choosing to be an optimist is tough. Your bullshit detector can easily get activated and say “Look around you — this is not true!” That is why we have to take it a step further and start creating it! After reading this article, I hope you’ll understand why optimism is essential to our climate movement and why we must claim agency and become optimists in action.
Optimism is Essential
It’s important we don’t think that optimism is purely a favorable feeling to live with. When you dive into the neuroscience of optimism, you’ll learn that it actually serves as a fundamental part of our well-being, personal success, and development as a society and world.
Some quick science for you:
Our ability to be optimistic comes from the most recently developed part of our brain, the prefrontal cortex. Unlike any other species on Earth, we are able to think about events that are yet to take place. We hold a perception of “past, present, future” which no other animal can do. They are simply in the now, all the time. Not only are we able to envision the future, but we can also create assumptions and aspirations of how we want that future to turn out.
And get this — the majority of us are actually optimistically biased!*
This means that we tend to envision future events as better than they actually turn out to be. Although this might seem silly, there are some real benefits to our brains working this way. When we being to understand the science of optimism, we can use it to our advantage to live better lives now, enhance our chances of a better tomorrow, and clearly set the target for the world we wish to see!
As Climate Optimists, it is of absolute importance that we understand this so that we can continue to find the motivation to create optimism in our everyday lives!
*Tali Sharot in TIME Magazine
Optimism is Essential for Three Main Reasons:
Optimism Sparks Action
Optimism Enhances Our Chances
Optimism Makes for Better & Healthier Lives
Read on to learn more!
Photos: Appolinary Kalashnikova
1) Optimism Sparks Action
The reason we have a brain function that is programmed to be optimistically biased is quite straight forward — we need to believe there is something worth working for in order to find the right motivation to reach for that goal! If we don’t believe it’s possible, why even bother?
But there’s more! Our brains are actually programmed to associate “forward” action with reward. We move toward something because we believe it is going to serve our interests for the better. We seek to achieve things because we want the outcome that it brings (Tali Sharot, The Influential Mind.)
Simultaneously, our brain is also built to trigger a “No Go” response when faced with the possibility of a loss. This is why in the face of climate change, we oftentimes feel more paralyzed than motivated to act. We’re simply told the stories of what we will lose if we don’t act, instead of focusing on what we want to achieve if were to build a more sustainable world.
Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson says (as shared in Climate Courage)
"To solve bigger, more ambiguous problems, we need to encourage open minds, creativity, and hope."
Photo: Nicholas Green
2) Optimism Enhances Our Chances
“Optimists are 40% more likely than pessimists to get a work promotion within the next year.”
- Tali Sharot
Here is where it gets real interesting and where you begin to recognize why our brains are primed to be optimistically biased. We simply need to believe in the possibilities to give it a try! And by trying, you’ve enhanced your chances of about 100% percent.
Being an optimist has nothing to do with wishful thinking. Although I’m a big believer in magic, it hasn’t to do with the law of attraction either. The reason optimism enhances your chances of making money, finding happiness, and reaching success comes down to science!
Neuroscientist Sara Bengtsson conducted a study on students where she manipulated positive and negative expectations of the students while their brains were scanned and tested. The study showed that priming the students with different words (such as smart and intelligent vs stupid and ignorant), led them to respond differently to mistakes they made. If they had been told they were smart, an alert was triggered inside the brain when they got a wrong answer, showing enhanced activity in the anterior medial part of the prefrontal cortex (a region in the brain where self-reflection and recollection take place. )
For those primed with negative words, no such activity was spotted. In other words — people who were primed to believe they were stupid received the news of a wrong answer as something to be expected!
What this really tells us is that people who think higher of themselves and life are better at assessing information and growing through life. An optimistic person, when faced with adversity, will fire up the needed brain activity to learn, reflect, and grow.
Someone with a negative “I’m nothing but a loser” kind of attitude lacks this firing squad in the brain. He will simply take downfalls and obstacles as proof that his philosophy of failure is right, and give in.
In conversations about climate change, I get challenged on my optimism a lot. How can we afford to be optimistic with everything going on? I like to challenge that back — how can we not? If we prime ourselves to believe the world is going under and that our time is running out, every news article stating that very fact will simply confirm our beliefs and keep us (mentally) stuck where we are.
If optimism enhances our chances by 40%, how is it not the most important thing that we have to tackle the climate crisis?
If four out of ten optimists are more likely to have success than the average dooms-day-guy, then I’d make it my core mission to activate as many optimists as I can!
Oh wait, I already have! ;)
3) Optimism Helps Us Live Better Lives Now
Lastly, optimism helps you live a better and healthier life now. If you believe there is something good to look forward to — a future to aspire to be part of — you will take much better care of yourself and your body now. Studies have shown that optimistic people are more likely to eat their vitamins, choose healthy foods, and work out than their pessimistic counterparts.
And with great results!
Studies show that optimistic people are 50% more likely to reach the age of 85 than their pessimistic counterparts.
In a Harvard research study including 70,000 women over an eight-year period, the most optimistic quartile had an almost 30% lower risk of dying from several major causes of death compared with women in the least optimistic quartile. (Published in the American Journal of Epidemiology)
To say that optimistic people are happier and have a brighter look at life might be to state the obvious. But you might be surprised by how many benefits actually come with living with this frame of mind!
“Even if that better future is often an illusion, optimism has clear benefits in the present. Hope keeps our minds at ease, lowers stress, and improves physical health.”
- Tali Sharot
Photo: Vlad Hilitanu
I hope you’re starting to see how optimism plays a HUGE part in our climate movement and how it’s essential that we do what we can to nurture that optimism on a continuous basis. To be a Climate Optimist is not about taking a step back and hoping for the best to happen. It’s about diving into awareness and choosing a path of resilience, action, and hope!
Ready to become an Optimist In Action? Please share so I can follow and be inspired by your journey! #OptimistInAction
** Sources of information for this article come from The Influential Mind and The Power of Positive Thinking, TIME Magazine.
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