Optimism vs. Pessimism: the Benefits of Each

A recent study led by Richard A. Anderson displays the benefits of being optimistic and pessimistic in term of brain activity and our behaviors contribute to most of this. In an experiment demonstrating the action planning and decision-making of the neural mechanisms, Anderson has subjects had to move a cursor with a trackball to a number of memorized locations on a computer screen in a specific order. Subjects were given 15 seconds to plan their movements and 10 seconds to perform the task, but only 1 second to see the path to follow. Though this may sound simple enough, there was a catch. Depending on the sequence, subjects were given predetermined wagers before each task and the wagers were different for each task. For example, a subject who completed a task correctly would win $5 but loosing would result in the subject having to pay a fee of $1, sometimes the values of winning would be greater than loosing, the values of loosing would be higher, and sometimes they would be equal. Based on these parameters and the behaviors of the subjects (focusing on optimism and pessimism) would determine how well each subject would perform. While the subjects were performing the tasks, neural activity was being measured in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) through the use of a fMRI.
Before each trial, each subject would predict how they would perform on the task whether or not they would perform well. Those who exhibited an optimistic behavior performed the best and showed the most neural activity in the PPC when the wager was higher for succeeding than failing, and the converse occurred with subjects who had a pessimistic behavior. They showed greater success and neural activity in the PPC when failing had a higher wager than succeeding. Surely these results could demonstrate how being an optimist is probably just as beneficial in life as being a pessimist under most circumstances.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100804151500.htm