According to the study: Is negative thinking a sign of intelligence?

psychology
Are optimists less intelligent?

Optimism is a quality often praised in self-help literature and on social media. Good Vibes Only and stuff. We find optimistic people more likeable than perpetual grumpy people, and they are usually happier too. But are they also more intelligent? Science says: no. At the very least, overly optimistic people who see everything through rose-colored glasses are apparently even less smart than people who look at things more realistically and perhaps even a little pessimistically.

How are optimism and intelligence related?

In one Study has Dr. Chris Dawson, who teaches marketing, business and society at the University of Bath in England, is investigating this fact. To do this, he evaluated data from a representative British long-term study based on information from more than 36,000 households.

Among other things, the scientist wanted to know how people’s expectations of their financial development relate to their actual financial situations – and how their intelligence factors into this equation. That’s why Dr. Dawson looks at the participants’ fluid thinking, linguistic fluency, number sense and memory.

These people are the most intelligent

The researcher found a connection between low cognitive abilities and excessive optimism. This means that anyone who greatly overestimates themselves and has an extremely positive outlook on the future is probably less intelligent than others.

Smartest, according to Dr. Dawson’s results were people whose likelihood of “realism” was increased by 22 percent and those of “extreme optimism” was reduced by 35 percent. These people had more negative expectations about the future, but were generally smarter.

Excessive optimism often leads to wrong decisions

According to the scientist, this correlation can have a particular impact on financial decisions. So if you are too optimistic about your own salary development, you may decide to buy a property that you actually can’t afford. Those who are pessimistic about their own finances usually make more conservative decisions based on this – and often end up better off.

However, very optimistic people also apparently tend to underestimate the occurrence of negative events. So they don’t expect to get sick, and so they may be more likely to drink alcohol, eat unhealthy foods, or smoke.

So should we all just think negatively? Of course not. Because looking positively into the future can make us happier and more relaxed. As with so many things in life, the happy medium is probably the healthiest path. Maybe we can develop a fundamentally positive attitude towards our lives and the future, but at the same time incorporate a good dose of realism – especially when it comes to things like our finances or our health.

Sources used: spektrum.de, journals.sagepub.com, neurosciencenews.com

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Bridget