Boy, I just love it when after years of my being considered a weirdo, someone with some credentials comes out and confirms what I’ve been saying all along. From the New York Times article, “Seeking a Cure for Optimism“:
““Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world,” Joseph P. Forgas, a professor of social psychology at the University of New South Wales in Australia, wrote in the study.”
I’m not saying that the reverse is at all helpful either, but I think that for some people, anticipating a real possibility of failure is much more helpful in the long run than figuring people are going to shower you with jobs/money/love/etc. simply because you walk around expecting it. Though I’ve seen it happen; people succumbing to the greater will of someone with a bigger ego and more self-confidence that overwhelms their followers’ common sense. But we’re talking people who need to be told how to think.
“As for Ms. Ehrenreich, she believes that negative thinking is just as delusional as unquestioned positive thinking. She hopes to see a day when corporate employees “walk out when the motivational speakers start talking,” she said. “It’s all about control and money.” Her goal? To encourage realism, “trying to see the world not colored by our wishes or fears, but by reality.”
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology