A survival tactic we call optimism

“Keep calm and carry on.”

The popular poster phrase, introduced in 1939 by the British government to strengthen the public’s morale during wartime, has been revitalized to help us through current times of trouble.

The economy dwindles, job opportunities plummet, Mother Nature deteriorates, our country loses its prestigious position, Jersey Shore stars make loads of money and the 2012 end-of-the-world conspiracy is the cherry on top. Keep calm and carry on?

Here we are, in an age in which good news is a godsend and a surprise nuclear attack seems more dependable then a future of fulfillment. But, somehow, we keep going.

I, too, am guilty of imagining an optimistic future. I mentally time travel to the days after graduation, when I have landed an admirably fantastic job with buzz-worthy benefits and a pleasing paycheck. I want a beautiful, mortgage-free home; a nice Jewish husband in my picture-perfect family; and enough leisure time and money to check off all the fun boxes that have accumulated on my bucket list.

Believing the future will be even greater than yesterday is a survival tactic we call optimism. We may expect it to wear off as the news floods with negativity, but our idea of the future stays fanciful.

It may seem as though too much optimism would keep us from acting rationally to avoid another bad investment.

However, optimism motivates us, inspiring us to keep calm, continue to carry on and believe that, somehow, we can bring the changes we see fit to triumph today’s disasters and conquer our childhood dreams.

With a dose of optimism, we continue to work hard and play hard, staying motivated to pursue our goals, committed to finding our fairy-tale endings. Even if our ideal future is powered by an illustrative illusion, staying positive blesses us with benefits in the present.

In Tali Sharot’s book “The Optimism Bias,” she refers to a 2007 study that illustrated the effect of future optimism. While 70 percent of survey respondents thought families were less successful than in their parents’ days, 76 percent were still optimistic about the future of their own families. How?  

Our brains have been wired to help us find the silver lining. The human race would never be fit for survival, if we didn’t have a biological tendency to put on a smile and recognize misfortunes as “blessings in disguise” that will ultimately strengthen us and lead to a bigger and better open door.

Why stay optimistic? We do so because we are smart. We know we are mortal and that time is ticking, and we are wired to encode positive information and disregard the news that will detract from our potential success. Optimism for the future is simply the key to survival for the fittest.

Samuel Johnson was right when he said we triumph hope over experience. The end of the world may be months away, but we pull all-nighters studying for our tests, take loans to pay college bills, predict a blossoming job market just in time for graduation and expect partition that promises world peace ... soon.

It is in our best interest to follow our biological instincts and acknowledge the British mandate to keep our cool.

What if George Washington became pessimistic while looking at the forecast and never crossed the Delaware? What if Martin Luther King Jr. lost sight of his optimism and never shared his dream?

We have made it through history; we are bound to make it through today’s challenges, which even Kanye West agrees can only make us stronger.  

One thing is for certain: We have limited time left to enjoy the gift of life. We may often feel the fear stemming from a consistently updated news feed of unfortunate events, but the fact that we are still around is evidence that there are enough positive reinforcers encoding themselves into our memories and helping us overcome challenges.

There is a reason it worked for the British in 1939 and a reason it should work today. We can’t forget the importance of seeing the glass as half full and rosily running along.
 
­— espitzer@indiana.edu