"I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist."
Apart from the endless, moebius-like philosophical debate on reality that could be entered into at this point, there is another, much more pertinent reason why optimism beats pessimism any day.
There is some research to show that pessimists have a more accurate take on some situations than optimists. But not the sort of situations that really matter.
In a study of students after an exam, those who were shown to have a pessimistic thinking style guessed their performance more accurately than the optimists. All well and good.
But what about the ambiguous situation presented by a relationship difficulty for example? While the pessimist might have a more 'accurate' take on the reality of the situation, the optimist will tend to persevere, and so is much more likely to overcome the problem.
The pessimist is more likely to give up early. So who is better off? Well, as long as you think relationships are worthwhile (and you'd have to be a major pessimist to think they are not), the optimist of course!
And this applies in all sorts of uncertain situations - the stuff of which life is made.
Usefulness, not Accuracy
The thing is, optimism is simply much more useful than pessimism in the sphere of emotions, relationships and life in general. As mentioned above, learning optimism makes life more enjoyable.
Optimism tends to engender pleasant emotions, while pessimism creates unpleasant ones. And that, in essence, makes for an enjoyable life.
At least I think it does.
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