#OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM DRIVERS#

The analyses use data from before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the results demonstrate the importance of monitoring how people’s feelings about the future evolve during the recovery from the crisis. Finally, it explores how the level of optimism differs in the Member States in relation to country context. To examine the extent to which optimists and pessimists behave and feel differently, the report looks at their socioeconomic and sociopolitical profiles. There was a tendency to cling to jobs and accept cuts in the short term, especially as the union leaders offer no alternative.

#OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM DRIVERS#

This report identifies the key drivers of people’s perceptions about the future and explores whether optimists and pessimists differ in their socioeconomic, cultural and political characteristics. Exactly twelve months ago, in an article entitled: 2011: - Optimism or pessimism I wrote the following: The first effect of the crisis was one of shock, not only for the bourgeois but also for the workers. Is there a link between the rising popularity of anti-establishment parties and increasing pessimism? These negative sentiments could adversely affect the political climate within individual Member States and also undermine the legitimacy of the European project. Many people believe society is in decline and this has given rise to a general sense of pessimism.

Implications of the findings for future research and clinical interventions are discussed.For more than a decade, uncertainty about the future in most parts of the EU has been growing. Realism, a third category between optimism and pessimism, denotes a more detached view of life. Unrealistic optimism, however, can lead to risky behavior and poor financial choices. Optimism is better for your quality of life and performance. Thus, the absence of pessimism was more strongly related to positive health outcomes than was the presence of optimism. The difference between optimist and pessimist is nuanced instead of clear-cut. The effect size for pessimism was significantly larger than the effect size for optimism ( Z = -2.403, p <. 001), as did meta-analytic analyses with the absence of pessimism ( r =. Meta-analytic analysis of data in which optimism and pessimism were combined into an overall index (the typical procedure) revealed a significant positive association with an aggregated measure of physical health outcomes ( r =. Ultimately, data were received from 61 separate samples (N = 221,133). Authors of relevant studies were asked to join a consortium, the purpose of which was to re-analyze previously published data sets separating optimism and pessimism into distinguishable components. Relevant literatures were screened for studies relating dispositional optimism to physical health. The reanalysis was designed to evaluate whether the presence of optimism or the absence of pessimism predicted positive physical health more strongly. This paper reports a reanalysis of data from previously published studies on dispositional optimism. Optimism and pessimism, however, may not be diametrically opposed, but rather may reflect two independent, but related dimensions. Traditionally, dispositional optimism is treated as a bipolar construct, anchored at one end by optimism and the other by pessimism. Prior research has related dispositional optimism to physical health.