If you require mental health crisis support, please contact your local mental health services, your GP, or telephone 111 or the emergency services.

Why is it important?

Benefits of an Optimistic Style

An optimistic style can be more helpful, as it is linked with:

  • Better wellbeing even in the face of stressful life events.
  • Better physical health.
  • Greater chances of success in stressful jobs, particularly those that include failure, as this encourages you to develop confidence.
  • More likely to be outgoing and have strong self-esteem.

Some Contradictory Research

Despite the research suggesting that optimism has a greater effect on wellbeing one study found that better performance in a stressful task wasn’t linked specifically to the use of an optimistic explanatory style. They found that the factor that impacted performance and anxiety levels the most was whether the individual was allowed to use their preferred explanatory style, either optimistic or pessimistic, rather than which style they used.

It is important to know that most people are not optimistic all of the time. Also, being optimistic is not always better.