According to research, optimistic people have lower cognitive abilities

Reality is constant. Our way of dealing with it, no. Some people are more inclined to croakTo search for the only cloud on a sunny day; Others may be soaked in the rain and say the sun is particularly hot that morning. This is the last position optimism Unrealistic, which in the long run can lead to risky behavior, not appreciating real danger or living in a very strange reality.

Now, research conducted by the University of Bath (UK) has shown this Excessive optimism is associated with decreased cognitive abilitiesSuch as verbal fluency, logic, numerical reasoning, and memory. The study is entitled seek On the (B)right side to life: Cognitive ability and incorrect financial forecasts, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

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The study’s conclusions indicate that while… Optimists make worse decisionsPeople with high cognitive abilities tend to be more realistic and pessimistic in their expectations for the future. “Predicting the future accurately is difficult and for this reason people with lower cognitive ability are expected to make more errors in judgment, both pessimistic and optimistic. But the results are clear: lower cognitive ability leads to more self-flagellation biases, that is, people deceive themselves.” “To some extent,” said Chris Dawson, a member of the research team.

The origin of this saying is as they explain: “Plans based on overly optimistic beliefs lead to poor decisions It has worse results than realistic beliefs. For example, financial decisions e.g Employment or savingare particularly vulnerable to this effect and pose serious effects on people.

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“Nails Unrealistically optimistic financial expectations can lead to excessive levels of consumption debt, as well as insufficient savings. It can also lead to the creation of redundant work and subsequent failure. “The chances of creating a successful company are slim, but optimists always believe they have a chance to create companies that are doomed to fail,” says Dawson.

The study methodology was to survey over 36,000 households in the UK Analyze your habits and expectations about your financial well-being. Once the data was collected, they compared it to their real-life financial results. The research found that people with higher cognitive ability experienced a 22% increase in the likelihood of being “realistic” and a 35% decrease in the likelihood of being “highly optimistic.”

The problem with excessive optimism is that it can It affects us when making serious decisionsBecause it can obscure reality from us. Researcher Chris Dawson concludes that positive thinking is deeply rooted in our society (in self-help books, TV commercials, movies…), but it is necessary to review some aspects of this belief. Thus, what the research suggests is that pessimistic people are just better informed people, because they are more aware of reality.