Unexpected benefits from pessimism

Research shows that pessimism, or 'defense', can help people be more successful. It is a strategy that involves setting low expectations for the outcome of a plan. Pessimists, or "defenders," often sketch the scenario that everything may be wrong.

Positive thinking has long been welcomed as a path to success, health and happiness.

But scientists argue that pessimism can help some people achieve their goals better and faster than optimism.

Pessimistic help some people achieve goals faster is optimistic.

In an article at the Dialogue program, Fuschia Sirois, a researcher on health psychology at the University of Sheffield, explains some kind of pessimism, called "defensive pessimism" , which brings give people a top advantage.

How many times have you been given cheering that something great will happen as long as you believe it is possible?

From pop psychology books to self-improvement workshops and blogs, there is a lot of hype around the benefits of.

And there is certainly some evidence behind it - a great deal of work shows that optimism has helped to earn some positive rewards, including better health and wellbeing.

But also when looking at a glass with only half the water. What about people who tend to focus on empty half instead of looking at water?

Pessimism is always a bad thing? In fact, the latest research shows that some pessimistic forms may be beneficial.

Pessimism is not just negative thinking.

Personality science has shown that it also includes focusing on results - that's what you expect to happen in the future.

While optimists often expect positive results to occur, pessimists imagine negative outcomes will be more likely.

There is a kind of pessimism, called "defensive pessimism , " who has negative thoughts to a whole new level and actually exploits it as a means to achieve their goals.

Research has shown that this way of thinking not only helps them succeed, but also brings some unexpected rewards.

However, the other major pessimism, simply blaming negative results, has a less positive impact.

Expression and confidence

But how pessimistic is the effect and what benefits can you get when you're not pessimistic?

Researchers think pessimism is a strategy that anxiety people use to help them manage their worries, which may make them want to run in the opposite direction of their goals rather than pursue it. .

The important factor is low expectations for the outcome of a specific plan or situation - such as thinking that you will not be recruited after the job interview - and then reviewing everything in detail. deviation to create the worst scenarios on a fact.

When encouraged to think positively, people of negative defenses only achieve poor results in charade questions.But when asked to provide a scenario of the worst possible scenario, they performed much better.

This helps the defensive pessimist set up an action plan to ensure that any imaginative incidents will not happen - for example, they will try to be prepared for the interview and coming soon.

The benefits of defensive pessimism also extend to actual performance.

When motivated and cheered for a happy mood, defensive pessimists have performed poorly in a series of word puzzles.

However, when they were in a pessimistic state, when instructed to imagine how a negative prospect might happen, they did significantly better.

This shows that they exploit the negative mood to motivate themselves to perform better.

Pessimism can also be more beneficial than optimistic in situations where you are waiting for news about results and there is no chance to influence results (such as waiting for job interview results). do).

When the results are not as good as the optimists expect, they will be more vulnerable, feel more frustrated and negative mood than pessimists.

Strangely, this pessimistic type may even help boost confidence.