A new brain imaging study suggests that a person’s optimism is associated with a piece of the mid-brain.
The study, published recently in the journal Nature, demonstrated increased activity in a specific brain area when participants were asked to think good thoughts about what might happen in future.
While it might be true that humans come with in-built optimism – as evidenced by the difficulty that researchers have in getting people to think negatively about future events – we know that thinking styles also have a lot to do with our optimism and hopefulness.
The Intute catalogue points to several resources that can help you think positively, including the Positive Psychology Center. And check out this online optimism quiz from Bradford College.
Paul Ayres says: November 9, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
Wow – I hope that I came with in-built optimism!
The Depression Report from Richard Layard of the Centre for Economic Performance’s Mental Health Policy Group, which came out last year – might be a useful addition for researchers looking at this topic.
It looked at the wider implications for society for failing to deal with depression and proposed more Government intervention in this area.