Objective
The present research examined whether the tendency to brace for the worst by becoming pessimistic as news approaches varies across people, namely, people who differ in their trait‐like ...outlooks on the future (dispositional optimism, defensive pessimism).
Method
Across nine studies in laboratory and field settings, we examined the roles of dispositional optimism and defensive pessimism in the propensity to brace for the worst when awaiting uncertain news. The studies used a variety of paradigms, including predictions about performance on the bar exam, peer ratings of attractiveness, and feedback on an intelligence test. Results: Results from these studies consistently failed to support individual differences in the tendency to brace for the worst.
Conclusions
Trait‐like differences in future outlooks seem to influence only the level and not trajectories of outcome predictions, pointing to relative commonalities in the development of the tendency to brace for the worst.
Since its introduction, the reward prediction error theory of dopamine has explained a wealth of empirical phenomena, providing a unifying framework for understanding the representation of reward and ...value in the brain
. According to the now canonical theory, reward predictions are represented as a single scalar quantity, which supports learning about the expectation, or mean, of stochastic outcomes. Here we propose an account of dopamine-based reinforcement learning inspired by recent artificial intelligence research on distributional reinforcement learning
. We hypothesized that the brain represents possible future rewards not as a single mean, but instead as a probability distribution, effectively representing multiple future outcomes simultaneously and in parallel. This idea implies a set of empirical predictions, which we tested using single-unit recordings from mouse ventral tegmental area. Our findings provide strong evidence for a neural realization of distributional reinforcement learning.
El optimismo y el pesimismo se han conceptualizado como las expectativas generalizadas sobre los acontecimientos en la vida de los individuos, y son considerados disposiciones estables. El constructo ...optimismo puede entenderse como unidimensional y bipolar, es decir, es un único atributo con dos extremos que pueden variar entre el optimismo y el pesimismo. El Life Orientation Test Revisado (LOT-R) es el instrumento utilizado para la evaluación del optimismo disposicional que ha sido objeto de numerosas investigaciones, entre las cuales se encuentran las que comprueban su unidimensionalidad; sin embargo, los resultados no necesariamente han respaldado el modelo teórico. El objetivo de la presente investigación fue realizar el análisis de la estructura factorial del LOT-R en una muestra de 183 estudiantes de educación básica primaria y secundaria de ambos sexos y con edades entre los 13 y 19 años. La aplicación del LOT-R se hizo colectivamente en el aula de clases. El análisis factorial confirmatorio del instrumento se realizó mediante dos modelos, uno unifactorial y otro bifactorial. El segundo modelo fue el más adecuado, lo que demuestra que en esta muestra específica el LOT-R consta de dos componentes. La necesidad de realizar estudios para comprobar la estructura del instrumento resulta evidente debido a que la literatura señala que las diferencias culturales son elementos clave para entender el optimismo.
Optimistic and pessimistic cognitive biases have been described in many animals and are related to the perceived valence of the environment. We, therefore, hypothesize that such cognitive bias can be ...adaptive depending on environmental conditions. In reward-rich environments, an optimistic bias would be favoured, whereas in harsh environments, a pessimistic one would thrive. Here, we empirically investigated the potential adaptive value of such bias using zebrafish as a model. We first phenotyped female zebrafish in an optimistic/pessimistic axis using a previously validated judgement bias assay. Optimistic and pessimistic females were then exposed to an unpredictable chronic stress protocol for 17 days, after which fish were euthanized and the sectional area of the different ovarian structures was quantified in both undisturbed and stressed groups. Our results show that zebrafish ovarian development responded to chronic stress, and that judgement bias impacted the relative area of the vitellogenic developmental stage, with pessimists showing higher vitellogenic areas as compared with optimists. These results suggest that pessimism maximizes reproductive investment, through increased vitellogenesis, indicating a relationship between cognitive bias and life-history organismal decisions.
Sammendrag Målet med denne artikkelen er å diskutere om det er riktig eller galt å få barn, eller om det er et moralsk anliggende overhodet? Artikkelen består av fire hoveddeler. I første del ...redegjør jeg kort for utvalgte deler av Peter Wessel Zapffes filosofi som knytter seg til antinatalismen. I andre del stiller jeg spørsmålet om hvorvidt den menneskelige forplantningen bør angå moralfeltet overhodet. I tredje del diskuterer jeg hvorvidt livets negative bestanddeler bør medføre antinatalisme. Her avgrenser jeg meg til å diskutere mening og meningsløshet og tar særlig til orde for at objektiv meningsløshet er et tvilsomt konsept. I fjerde og siste del drøfter jeg forholdet mellom antinatalisme og døden. Konklusjonen blir at objektiv meningsløshet er et dårlig grunnlag for antinatalisme. Likevel mener jeg at den menneskelige forplantningen bør og må angå moralfeltet.
•We investigate the associations between optimism/pessimism and RSA indices.•Pessimism is negatively related to RSA reactivity in response to a social stressor.
The associations among dispositional ...optimism/pessimism, baseline RSA and RSA reactivity were investigated in the current study. Physiological data were collected from 102 young adults during baseline, social stress task (i.e., a public speaking task) and recovery periods in the laboratory. Dispositional optimism and pessimism were assessed using the revised Life Orientation Test. Results showed that higher dispositional pessimism is significantly related to lower levels of RSA reactivity to the social stress task. Finding highlight that individuals with higher levels of pessimism may be at elevated risk for physiological maladjustment.
The cumulative negative effects of prolonged Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis (HPA axis) activation are associated with several age-related diseases. Some psychological traits such as optimism and ...pessimism have been shown to be related to both health and the stress response, although their relationship with the HPA axis is inconclusive. More stable HPA axis biomarkers, such as hair samples of cortisol (HC) and dehydroepiandrosterone (HDHEA), would help to clarify the association between these psychological traits and HPA axis functioning. The main aim of this study was to test the relationships between optimism and pessimism and chronic stress biomarkers measured in hair (HC and HDHEA). Additionally, a secondary objective was to explore sex differences in HC and HDHEA levels and their relationship with these psychological traits. We measured optimism, pessimism, and their combination (dispositional optimism) using the Life Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R) and chronic stress biomarkers (HC and HDHEA) in 119 healthy participants (46 men and 73 women) between 56 and 81 years old who belonged to a university program. Regression analyses controlling for perceived stress and BMI indicated that higher dispositional optimism was related to lower HC and HC:HDHEAratio (β = −0.256, p = .008 and β = −0.300, p = .002, respectively). More specifically, higher pessimism was related to higher HC (β = 0.235; p = .012) and HC:HDHEAratio (β = 0.240; p = .011), whereas higher optimism was associated with a lower HC:HDHEAratio(β = −0.205; p = .031). Moderation analyses showed no sex differences. To date, this is the first study to investigate the link between these traits and HC and HDHEA in older people. Our results confirm that positive and negative expectations about the future (i.e. optimism and pessimism) may play an important role in health due to their relationship with the HPA axis. They also strengthen the idea that the negative effects of pessimism have a greater weight than the protective effects of optimism in their relationship with HPA axis regulation.
•Dispositional optimism is related to chronic stress biomarkers measured in hair.•The effect of dispositional optimism on health could be mainly due to pessimism subscale.•No sex differences in chronic stress biomarkers were found.
In the present, the past is more knowable than the future-but people think far more about the future than the past. Both facts derive from the principle that the future can be changed whereas the ...past cannot. Our theory of pragmatic prospection holds that people think about the future so as to guide actions to bring about desirable outcomes. It proposes that thoughts about the future begin by imagining what one wants to happen, which is thus initially optimistic. A second stage of such prospective thinking maps out how to bring that about, and this stage is marked by consideration of obstacles, requisite steps, and other potential problems, and so it tends toward cautious realism and even pessimism. Pragmatic prospection presents a form of teleology, in which brains can anticipate possible future events and use those cognitions to guide behavior. Toward that end, it invokes meaning, consistent with evidence that thinking about the future is highly meaningful. Prospection often has narrative structure, involving a series of events in a temporal sequence linked together by meaning. Emotion is useful for evaluating different simulations of possible future events and plans. Prospection is socially learned and rests on socially constructed scaffolding for the future (e.g., future dates). Planning is perhaps the most common form of prospection, and it exemplifies all aspects of our theory (including pragmatic utility, meaning, teleological and narrative structure, and sociality). Bracing for bad news and defensive pessimism are strategies that inspire adaptive responses to feared outcomes.
Pessimism claims an impressive following--from Rousseau, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, to Freud, Camus, and Foucault. Yet "pessimist" remains a term of abuse--an accusation of a bad attitude--or the ...diagnosis of an unhappy psychological state. Pessimism is thought of as an exclusively negative stance that inevitably leads to resignation or despair. Even when pessimism looks like utter truth, we are told that it makes the worst of a bad situation. Bad for the individual, worse for the species--who would actually counsel pessimism?
Joshua Foa Dienstag does. InPessimism, he challenges the received wisdom about pessimism, arguing that there is an unrecognized yet coherent and vibrant pessimistic philosophical tradition. More than that, he argues that pessimistic thought may provide a critically needed alternative to the increasingly untenable progressivist ideas that have dominated thinking about politics throughout the modern period. Laying out powerful grounds for pessimism's claim that progress is not an enduring feature of human history, Dienstag argues that political theory must begin from this predicament. He persuasively shows that pessimism has been--and can again be--an energizing and even liberating philosophy, an ethic of radical possibility and not just a criticism of faith. The goal--of both the pessimistic spirit and of this fascinating account of pessimism--is not to depress us, but to edify us about our condition and to fortify us for life in a disordered and disenchanted universe.
•Non-pharmacological manipulations of affect alter judgement bias across species.•Effect sizes are small to moderate, with positive affect inducing optimism.•Effect sizes are highly heterogeneous ...among studies.
Just as happy people see the proverbial glass as half-full, ‘optimistic’ or ‘pessimistic’ responses to ambiguity might also reflect affective states in animals. Judgement bias tests, designed to measure these responses, are an increasingly popular way of assessing animal affect and there is now a substantial, but heterogeneous, literature on their use across different species, affect manipulations, and study designs. By conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 459 effect sizes from 71 studies of non-pharmacological affect manipulations on 22 non-human species, we show that animals in relatively better conditions, assumed to generate more positive affect, show more ‘optimistic’ judgements of ambiguity than those in relatively worse conditions. Overall effects are small when considering responses to all cues, but become more pronounced when non-ambiguous training cues are excluded from analyses or when focusing only on the most divergent responses between treatment groups. Task type (go/no-go; go/go active choice), training cue reinforcement (reward-punishment; reward-null; reward-reward) and sex of animals emerge as potential moderators of effect sizes in judgement bias tests.
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