Optimism Linked to Poor Decision-Making and Lower Cognitive Skills

[murray t turtle]

growth mindsets always win. And optimistic people tend to be growth minded.

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GOOD GRoWTH points\except never a thing as always win.[unless you count losses as ''education'' =FINE LOL]
Man , you having too much fun\
NO matter what they say i've done\
i never had to much fun.
Give me the reigns + let me run/
What's that mean??
No such thing,
As having too too much fun. Song by D Singletary/Giant Records> 4,177,888 Video Views

 

[RantaMin]

I believe that most inventors were optimists because a pessimist wouldn't even start, they already know at the beginning that nothing will work out

 

[Slow Learning Elf]

growth mindsets always win. And optimistic people tend to be growth minded.

 

[newwurldmn]

I know the point of the picture, but i don't know how it relates to my post.

 

[semperfrosty]

I know the point of the picture, but i don't know how it relates to my post.

Agree.

I looked from a couple of different angles and cant see it either.

It's had a recent resurgence on line though.Probably even a Tiktok! haha.May be being slightly misinterpreted?

 

[Slow Learning Elf]

I know the point of the picture, but i don't know how it relates to my post.

The point is that our perception of what drives success is largely shaped by the survivorship bias. We always hear about successes of optimistic, growth mindset people. What we don't hear about is all the failures that had the same growth mindset. In a fewer words, "it's better to be lucky than smart".

Obviously, this is tongue in cheek. Probably best to think of growth mindset as "necessary but not sufficient".

 

[newwurldmn]

The point is that our perception of what drives success is largely shaped by the survivorship bias. We always hear about successes of optimistic, growth mindset people. What we don't hear about is all the failures that had the same growth mindset. In a fewer words, "it's better to be lucky than smart".

Obviously, this is tongue in cheek. Probably best to think of growth mindset as "necessary but not sufficient".

totally agree. Growth mind set doesn’t mean success. And luck has the largest role to play in all of it.

the point of the thread was that pessimistic people make better decisions. I don’t agree with that.

 

[Slow Learning Elf]

the point of the thread was that pessimistic people make better decisions. I don’t agree with that.

In terms of decision making, the classic Kahneman/Tversky studies seem to suggest exactly the opposite, that neutral to tempered-positive thinking leads to better decision making. However, I think the article says something else, something along the lines "if you see a bubbly optimist, he's likely to be an idiot", rather than imply that pessimistic people make better decisions (I only skimmed the original paper: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672231209400 so take it with a grain of salt). That matches my anecdotal experience and can be, in many ways, "verified" here on ET. Overconfidence is a prime form of excessive optimism and ET is overconfidence central.

In any case, my problem with the study is that it was done in the UK and does not correct for the cultural biases. It's hard to separate biological pessimism from ability to evaluate risk. It's probably even harder to separate biological optimism from the bullshit societal pressures. So my expectation would be that societies that foster a cynical, negative outlook on life (e.g. Russia) produce idiots who are cynical pessimists, while societies like the US and the UK (where every bit of media screams about meritocracy) produce optimistic, growth-mind-set idiots.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

the point of the thread was that pessimistic people make better decisions. I don’t agree with that.

Did you read the article linked in the first post?

 

[newwurldmn]

Did you read the article linked in the first post?

why would I do that? This is ET.