In Defense of Pessimism

Ode Magazine (September 2010; odemagazine.com) explored the strengths and weaknesses of optimists and pessimists.  Here is one observation it made about pessimists:

“Austrian researchers have found that people in negative frames of mind are more alert to — and therefore more healthily suspicious of — their surroundings, compared to those in more positive frames of mind.  A dose of pessimism seems to aid critical thinking.  If optimism keeps you in an unfulfilling situation, then pessimism is certainly a better alternative.  But pessimists still need a dose of optimism to see possible alternatives and develop strategies to pursue them.

“Julie Norem, a psychology professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, believes pessimism can even be a performance-enhancing state of mind.  She cites the example of a public speaker who is always nervous before a performance.  Convinced that the next talk will be a disaster, the prospective speaker imagines tripping over the microphone cord, crashing the PowerPoint presentation, or forgetting large portions of her speech.  Because she’s so worried, she puts extra time into preparation, with the result that every speech is a resounding success.

“This kind of defensive pessimism can be liberating, Noreen suggests.  ‘If you put on a t-shirt with the phrase, The worst is yet to come,’ she says, ‘you send out a message that people cannot expect you to be happy and successful all the time.  Such an attitude may help us tolerate the negatives.’”

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