Optimism Bias Analysis

In the words of Winston Churchill, "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." When we are optimistic that we can get a job done, or that we can find a cure for a disease, we are more motivated, and we work harder. A scientist who is pessimistic that they will never find a cure for a specific disease will have a mental mind block against finding a cure for a disease, making it considerably harder for them to find a cure. However, a scientist who is optimistic about finding a cure for a disease will be motivated and more focused on their dedication to discovering a cure for a disease such as cancer. When you are optimistic, you are more motivated, and when you are motivated, you are more productive, consequently making optimism a particularly important priority in everyday

Many times I had walked into the college campus with positive intent on enrolling to better my

You feel happy when you are optimistic. This can result in you feeling more energetic, give you brighter eyes, and bring you success and happiness. You also walk with more confidence and have a stronger voice. Also, your positivity can spread to others, however, any negativity can also spread. Some ways to be positive are to not allow what other people say about you get to you. Other ways are to smile more, try to only visualize positive things, use positive words when talking to people, and don’t give up. (Sasson, The Power of Positive Thinking, Paragraphs 1, 14, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 27) These are great examples of why you would want to be optimistic and respond to conflict with positivity.

An article written by Kendra Cherry states, “By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of terrible events, people can reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future” (Cherry). Optimism has allowed for people to deal with conflicts in a healthy way. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot in her book The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope argues that optimism provides an adaptive advantage. According to her, “Expecting our future to be good reduces stress and anxiety, which is good for our health. Researchers studying heart attack patients have found that optimists were more likely than nonoptimistic patients to take vitamins, eat low-fat diets, and exercise, thereby reducing their overall coronary risk” (Popova). Dealing with conflicts positively is better for your health and it decreases bad health

In this Ted Talk cognitive neuroscientist Tali Sharot shared with us the concept of optimism bias and the research that she has been doing on the very topic. She spoke about it as being an illusion. Her description of optimism bias is that we tend to think we will have more positive things happen in our life than bad one. We overestimate the good and underestimate the bad. Optimism bias is something that people throughout the world experience from young to old people. She gave marriage as an example of this kind of bias and stated that forty percent of people that get married will get a divorce but people who just got married will say that there it is unlikely they will end up divorcing. Despite the facts people

I knew college was going to change me in many ways. Yet, after my family and I restructured our collective and individual emotional reactivity over the three years that I was away at school, I believed my work in that department was done. I thought transiting into college was difficult, however, I found myself once again unprepared for the aftershock that rocked my family once I return from school. I left college a strong, independent, mature, and differentiated person, or at least I kind of did.

Mitigating the optimism bias would be beneficial when facing a financial crisis;the person might be negligent to the severity of the situation and rely on the hope that everything will unfold itself. By leveling down the optimism bias, the person will be able to think without clouding judgement and exert clarity and intelligence in the progression of settling their finances. However, this could very well be their down fall, by minimizing optimism bias too far gone it can lead them to give up because they see no light at the end of the tunnel, they simply prepare to face the worst scenario possible. When competing one is advised to "not get too cocky" , that is due to the allusion that toning down your optimism bias that you always win,

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, there is both tragedy and optimism. While Willy Loman spends his last few days before committing suicide the audience gets the chance to witness Willy Loman in his old age as well as him in his younger years through a series of flashbacks. In these flashbacks, Willy is often bragging about his and Biff’s accomplishments as well as their futures. Willy is optimistic in his youth, this is a quality that he holds onto the best that he can in his old age and fragile state after being cast aside by the company that he spent over 30 years working for. Although in the end, Willy is unable to persevere through the hardships he faced his sons, Biff and Happy, are left with a better understanding of their father's flaws, mistakes, and misfortunes as well as his optimism.

The Stanford optimism survey was a bit challenging for me from the beginning. I would have to say that some of the questions were hard to answer due to the fact that I could not relate to either one of the two answers. One great example is the question about forgetting my spouse’s birthday, I would never forget or be too busy to remember, that is just not who I am. I feel as if I was forced to choose and answer. An answer that would most likely to happen. That seemed to be the case in more than a few questions.

Research shows that individuals are not aware that more negative things than positive influence them and listed four reasons individuals are wired to be prejudice towards the negative, bad news holds our attention more, individuals will remember more bad than good, and people will cheer for the weaker individuals (Denair,

The concept I most related to in Chapter 4 was positivity and negativity biases and how they affect perception. Positivity bias is all about paying attention to someone or somethings more favorable aspects, and negativity bias is when you focus more heavily on the unfavorable qualities. So many factors can alter our perception of the people and events that occur in our lives, but having a bias influences you to favor or more strongly dislike someone or something without paying attention to other qualities they possess. Positivity bias is most present in relationships, especially in what is considered the “honeymoon” phase, where everything is happy and neither person can do no wrong in the relationship. Negativity biases can often be found in politics, where each political party so strongly dislikes the other that they can’t ever seem to agree or see past their hatred for the others political affiliation. In order to more effectively communicate, however, people should try and put their biases to the side and communicate in an objective manner.

What I had missed in my previous college experience was an ability to focus solely on my studies. Given that I am older and wiser in my perceptions I truly believe that I will be able to do well given the

Is the glass half full or half empty? Does every cloud truly have a silver lining? These are a few quotes that are as old as the ages. I have always found myself to look at the brighter and lighter side of every situation. I find that not dwelling on the negative or pondering on the downside keeps me in a better place and state of mind.

Human beings are models of overconfident. Overconfidence is a person’s decision-making that relays bias to seek confirming evidence. People believe that they are better at sports than others, better eye-witnesses, and even better drivers than the average. According to Halpern (2014), a lot of people don’t improve on the way they perceive and decide on situations, due to the misconception that they are already making the right decisions. For example, imagine going on a family road trip with an overconfident relative. This relative is so overconfident in their navigation skills, that instead of using a map, or a navigation system, and refuse to ask for help if they end up getting lost on the road. Another example of overconfidence that often shows up in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, is an overconfident fighter wins a match against a much lesser opponent. This leads to this fighter believing he is a greater fighter and challenging the champion, a much more experienced, and skilled fighter, to a match. The fighter who is overconfident, as a result, gets badly beaten by the champion due to his overconfidence.

Optimistic and pessimistic attitudes constantly affect the outcome of people's lives. In my life, I try to keep an optimistic attitude about the things I do because I know it will help lead me to more desirable ends. There have been many situations in which optimism has helped me through difficult times. Two areas in particular have provided me optimistic experiences: athletics