Douglas Roberts wrote:
Can you point to a study which validates this contention, Owen? Or is it more of an opinion?
My opinion is that both Pessimism and Optimism are born entirely out of abstractions, social expectations and possibly blood/brain chemistry. It is how we frame what we experience, not a direct result of what we experience.
Anecdotal evidence abounds that many people living in what most of us would call horrid/challenging conditions can be quite hopeful and optimistic while others (like most of us on this list) who live entitled, unchallenging (at a survival/physical/health level) are prone to being cynical and pessimistic. I think there is a connection between pessimism/optimism and experience but it is not direct and it is not positive in sense.
But me, I'm a pessimistic optimist... I prefer a worldview, a background assumption that "all is right" but with the predilection to recognize the absurd and ironic woven into that. It exhibits itself in my behaviour as "morbid fascination".
Nick (and others) may be able to cite some hard(ish?) studies and data on this topic?
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