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Half a glass of water, illustration of two different mental attitudes, optimism (half full) and pessimism (half empty). Optimism is an attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavor, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favorable, and desirable.
The term pessimism derives from the Latin word pessimus, meaning 'the worst'.It was first used by Jesuit critics of Voltaire's 1759 novel Candide, ou l'Optimisme.Voltaire was satirizing the philosophy of Leibniz who maintained that this was the 'best (optimum) of all possible worlds'.
The word pessimism comes from Latin pessimus, meaning "the worst".The term "optimism" was first used to name Lebnitz's thesis that we live in "the best of all possible worlds"; and "pessimism" was coined to name the opposing view.
The Optimism Spectrum, Explained. On one end of this spectrum, you have persistent pessimism; on the other, you have toxic positivity. Those who fall into the latter camp “refuse to acknowledge ...
A new study from Michigan State University says that there's a physical, biological difference in the brains of optimists and pessimists. The study took 71 female participants and pre-screened ...
Nevertheless, pessimism still sounds intelligent and optimism dumb. I often feel embarrassed to admit that I’m an optimist. I imagine it knocks me down a peg or two in people’s estimations.
Optimism may occur from either a distortion of personal estimates, representing personal optimism, or a distortion for others, representing personal pessimism. [4] Pessimism bias is an effect in which people exaggerate the likelihood that negative things will happen to them. It contrasts with optimism bias.
Josiah Stamp is often given credit for introducing it in a 1935 speech, but although he did help to popularize it, a variant regarding a car's gas tank occurs in print with the optimism/pessimism connotations as early as 1929, and the glass-with-water version is mentioned simply as an intellectual paradox about the quantity of water (without ...