Are you a glass half-empty person?It’s Worrying… Research Suggests Pessimists Are at Higher Risk of Suffering from Anxiety
- Researchers examined 625 students and were asked to predict their expected grades.
- Many students had an “optimism bias” that raised expectations for past grades
- Experts suspect pessimism is a strategy to avoid disappointment
For out-of-this-world Eeyore, who has a glass-half approach to life, this is bad news.
Research suggests that pessimists are at greater risk of suffering from anxiety.
Researchers examined 625 students and were asked to predict their expected grades on four test sets.
Many students had an “optimism bias.” That is, we raised expectations for future test performance based on previous performance.
(Stock Image) Pessimists are at higher risk of suffering from anxiety, study suggests
(Stock image) Researchers examined 625 students and were asked to predict the expected grades they would get on four test sets.
But pessimists expected the worst, so they didn’t properly update their predictions of future performance, even if they performed better than expected.
Researchers found that these pessimists later showed signs of greater anxiety based on questionnaires they completed three years later.
Experts suspect that pessimism is a strategy that people adopt because they don’t want to be disappointed by unpredictable events.
Since it is also a sign of anxiety, the two can be strongly linked.
“Our results suggest that pessimistic people learn differently from life’s surprises,” said Dr. Aaron Heller of the University of Miami Department of Psychology.
(Stock image) Pessimists expected the worst and didn’t properly update their predictions of future performance when they performed better than expected
“Not only are they less optimistic, but even if small good surprises happen, they don’t change their outlook as much as less pessimistic people, which can put them at a higher risk of anxiety symptoms.”
The study, published in Science Advances, asked people to predict the results of four difficult chemical tests.
Pessimists generally failed to raise their own expectations when they performed slightly better than expected.
Anxiety tests six months to three years later asked questions such as whether people felt anxious, tense, or worried too much.
Previous studies had only looked at gambling tasks that had little to do with real life, so the researchers used test results to test for pessimism.
advertisement
