It turns out that looking on the bright side pays. A new study has found that optimists will earn around $4000 AUD more per year than pessimists. It is the first time that researchers have looked at the impact of pessimism on wages, and the results follow a nine year research project by academics at the University of Cologne.
“While previous research has associated cynicism with detrimental outcomes across a wide range of spheres of life, including physical health, psychological well-being and marital adjustment, the present research has established an association between cynicism and individual economic success,” lead author Dr Olga Stavrova, of the University of Cologne, Germany, told The Telegraph.
Possible reasons given for why pessimists may miss out on wage advancement were that pessimists were more likely to be suspicious of other people and less likely to participate in group activities and may avoid asking for help which may advance their careers.
As Sports psychiatrist Steve Peters told the Guardian, part of becoming successful is overcoming the negative, self-doubting and ungenerous parts of our brains and selves.
The research studied 16,000 people, using a questionnaire and the findings were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
