Optimism Linked to Poor Decision-Making and Lower Cognitive Skills

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by Frederick Foresight, Dec 5, 2023.

  1. %%
    GOOD GRoWTH points\except never a thing as always win.[unless you count losses as ''education'' =FINE LOL:D:D]
    Man , you having too much fun\
    NO matter what they say i've done\
    i never had to much fun.
    Give me the reigns + let me run/
    What's that mean??
    No such thing,
    As having too too much fun. Song by D Singletary/Giant Records> 4,177,888 Video Views
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2023
    #11     Dec 5, 2023
  2. RantaMin

    RantaMin

    I believe that most inventors were optimists because a pessimist wouldn't even start, they already know at the beginning that nothing will work out
     
    #12     Dec 11, 2023

  3. [​IMG]
     
    #13     Dec 17, 2023
  4. newwurldmn

    newwurldmn

    I know the point of the picture, but i don't know how it relates to my post.
     
    #14     Dec 17, 2023
  5. Agree.

    I looked from a couple of different angles and cant see it either.

    It's had a recent resurgence on line though.Probably even a Tiktok! haha.May be being slightly misinterpreted?
     
    #15     Dec 17, 2023
  6. The point is that our perception of what drives success is largely shaped by the survivorship bias. We always hear about successes of optimistic, growth mindset people. What we don't hear about is all the failures that had the same growth mindset. In a fewer words, "it's better to be lucky than smart".

    Obviously, this is tongue in cheek. Probably best to think of growth mindset as "necessary but not sufficient".
     
    #16     Dec 17, 2023
    Frederick Foresight likes this.
  7. newwurldmn

    newwurldmn

    totally agree. Growth mind set doesn’t mean success. And luck has the largest role to play in all of it.

    the point of the thread was that pessimistic people make better decisions. I don’t agree with that.
     
    #17     Dec 17, 2023
  8. In terms of decision making, the classic Kahneman/Tversky studies seem to suggest exactly the opposite, that neutral to tempered-positive thinking leads to better decision making. However, I think the article says something else, something along the lines "if you see a bubbly optimist, he's likely to be an idiot", rather than imply that pessimistic people make better decisions (I only skimmed the original paper: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672231209400 so take it with a grain of salt). That matches my anecdotal experience and can be, in many ways, "verified" here on ET. Overconfidence is a prime form of excessive optimism and ET is overconfidence central.

    In any case, my problem with the study is that it was done in the UK and does not correct for the cultural biases. It's hard to separate biological pessimism from ability to evaluate risk. It's probably even harder to separate biological optimism from the bullshit societal pressures. So my expectation would be that societies that foster a cynical, negative outlook on life (e.g. Russia) produce idiots who are cynical pessimists, while societies like the US and the UK (where every bit of media screams about meritocracy) produce optimistic, growth-mind-set idiots.
     
    #18     Dec 17, 2023
  9. Did you read the article linked in the first post?
     
    #19     Dec 18, 2023
  10. newwurldmn

    newwurldmn

    why would I do that? This is ET.
     
    #20     Dec 18, 2023