The art of being a happy pessimist

Countless self-help books and social media slogans insist that positive thinking is the magic pill of mental health. But is it?

There’s a ‘positivity’ cult ruling the world. Through countless self-help books, banal social media slogans, and WhatsApp good-morning messages, this cult will have you believe that ‘Think Positive’ is the magic pill of mental health. Pop one to instantly make that half-empty glass half-full and everything around you bright and sunny.

But isn’t it painful to continually appear optimistic even when we are anxious and bogged down? And, what of those among us who naturally take a more guarded view of the world? When things are very clearly not okay, can we really switch on that ‘Be Optimistic’ button and feel okay?

Turns out, practically, physiologically, and psychologically, pessimism is not always the villain popular culture has made it out to be. And, in more ways than one, some forms of pessimism can also work to our advantage.

The case for constructive pessimism

First things first — a positive outlook is great. We all like chirpy people around us. The melancholic get the short shrift. And our lived experience tells us that life is easier when we are hopeful and jovial. Additionally, a large body of research work suggests optimism has many health benefits. Studies have shown that those with an upbeat attitude are less prone to heart disease, stroke, and cancer. It is no wonder then that there’s relentless social pressure on us to be eternal optimists. Herein lies the problem.

Experts believe our moods and viewpoints are part of an optimism-pessimism spectrum. At the opposite ends of this spectrum are the pure optimists, who may be detached from reality, and the pure pessimists, who may be miserable, according to Dr Elizabeth Scott, author and award-winning blogger on stress management and emotional wellbeing.

While the purists are a small minority, the majority of us fit in somewhere around the middle of the spectrum. And while, typically, most of us are optimistic about some areas of our life and not so about others, our natural state of being leans towards one of the two ends of the spectrum, writes Dr Scott in a medically reviewed article.

Thus, in the words of Dr Alok V Kulkarni, senior consultant psychiatrist at a Hubli-based mental health institute, “optimism, although desirable, is not the default state of mind for everyone”. It depends on various factors — birth traits, stable upbringing, positive life events, a sense of security, and positive feelings about self-worth, self-image, self-esteem, and self-identity — Dr Kulkarni elaborates. So, it follows that the majority of people are either generally optimistic or generally pessimistic owing to their birth traits and the kind of life they have had from childhood through adolescence and youth.

Crucially, though, “it is not possible to fundamentally change a person”, says Dr Raghu K, chief psychiatrist at a Bengaluru-based multi-specialty hospital. According to him, there’s a socio-cultural dimension of how we think about optimism and pessimism. “Nothing is a waste in nature,” he says. If a particular trait exists, then it has its uses in our life and survival. But how we view or classify the trait — positive or negative, good or bad — is merely a social construct. Put simply, society has its own way of creating a narrative. If it views a particular trait favourably, then anybody who exhibits that trait is branded a positive personality, and vice versa.

In the context of pessimism, we know that it has been a useful trait all through our evolution because being edgy, anxious, and worried about things that could go wrong kept us alive. But most modern societies, including ours, view pessimism as a negative emotion. And so those of us who are not naturally optimistic desperately want to disown and stifle our pessimistic instincts, even though the struggle to become optimistic is sometimes more painful than being pessimistic.

The irony here is that the tendency to force positivity and resist negativity can actually hurt the truly anxious. Psychologist and writer Dr Douglas LaBier says that mental health and wellbeing stem from embracing “bad feelings” and not pushing them away. He says that while meditation, yoga, and other mind-body practices can help us cope with negativity, the process has to begin with first accepting our so-called negative emotions.
Thus, to sum up in the words of Dr Raghu, “if you are born with a particular trait, you need to embrace it and view it as your strength.” And this applies to pessimism too.

How to embrace pessimism

This isn’t to say that all of us should proactively develop a more pessimistic view of life. But if we are naturally inclined to have a pessimistic outlook, how can we use this trait as a strength?

Some of the benefits of having a pessimistic outlook are intrinsic to the way such personalities think and behave. More often than not, they expect negative outcomes and are pleasantly surprised when things actually go well. Not surprisingly, therefore, a 2013 study published in the Journal of Research in Personality shows that people with a negative outlook are better than their more optimistic peers when it comes to building safety nets, staying prepared (practically and emotionally) for bad situations, and holding on to their world view in crises. We can also surmise that since pessimists are focused on seeing obstacles in their way, they are better at assessing risks and avoiding them.

Research indicates that a pessimist’s chronic tendency to have negative expectations (dispositional pessimism in psychologist parlance) can be a big advantage too, especially in the area of relationships.

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology concludes that sometimes too much optimism can be a liability in a marriage or relationship as it prevents couples from proactively engaging in problem-solving. Conversely, couples who have a more guarded approach to their relationship tend to experience more success and satisfaction in the long run because they start off with lower expectations about each other’s ability to adapt and hence, put in more effort.

There’s also a way to use pessimism as a strategy for managing anxiety and dealing with difficult real-life situations. Psychologists call this “defensive pessimism”, and it is premised on the fact that people with a negative outlook tend to imagine worst-case scenarios in a loop and become anxious. However, practitioners of defensive pessimism harness this trait to actually perform better than they would by thinking positively.

When a defensive pessimist begins to feel anxious about an event or situation, she first lowers her expectations dramatically and then, thinks through in specific, vivid ways about all the things that could go wrong. In the process, she is able to create a plan of action to deal with all the potential setbacks. To understand better, think of an upcoming public speaking event that is making you nervous. Using defensive pessimism principles, start off by telling yourself that it’s going to be a disaster. Then imagine in detail all the worst-case scenarios — you forget a key data point, you trip on the microphone wire, and so forth.

Seeing this disaster unfold in your mind’s eye, you become prepared to take concrete mitigating actions — you carry a cue card with the data point, you ask the organisers for a wireless microphone, and so forth. Thus, you feel more in control and therefore less anxious.

The icing on the cake of course is that you are now very well prepared, better prepared than you would be if you thought the event would turn out great.

Does pessimism really affect your health? Ask the Japanese

Everyone and their aunt believe optimists are healthier than pessimists. The reality though is that for every study affirming the health benefits of optimism, there’s another showing the longer life expectancy of pessimists. A Finnish study links pessimism to heart disease, but a British study doesn’t find any link between positivity and long life. Thus, contrary to popular perception, the scientific evidence in support of either the health benefits of optimism or ill-effects of pessimism is inconclusive, contradictory, and controversial.

A 2017 study comparing the adult populations of America and Japan is a good reference in this context. Titled ‘Linking Positive Affect to Blood Lipids: A Cultural Perspective’, the study found that Americans were more likely to have healthier cholesterol and less likely to be overweight if they were optimistic. But no such connection could be found for the Japanese. In East Asian cultures, such as in Japan, positive emotions are not viewed favourably and are considered a distraction. But paradoxically, the Japanese people are known to lead long and healthy lives. So, if pessimism is unhealthy, what explains the Japan paradox?

It is impossible to find the exact cause and effect in studies like this. But look with a socio-cultural lens and the answer seems clear. In American society, optimism is a strongly reinforced value whereas, in Japan, the cultural emphasis is on living with a guarded outlook. So, it is perhaps not optimism or pessimism, but our ability to live in tune with the prevailing culture that makes us healthy or unhealthy.

The worst is yet to come?

You can trust the Swedes to be the first ones to hail anything contrarian. That's true for happy pessimism too which is gaining much currency in Sweden. Fighting the pressure to be seen as relentlessly positive, many Swedes are cheering for a growing cult that promotes healthy negative thinking. In fact, a course titled 'Negative thinking: It Won't Get Better Than This' by Ida Hallgren, a practical philosopher and psychologist, ran out of applications in a day.

Psychologist and comedian Mattias Lundberg, who co-authored a book on happy pessimism, writes that there's no denying the power of optimism but the self-help industry has "twisted the term."

"Boundless positivity has somehow become a necessary condition for happiness. And in that assumption could lie a great danger," he is quoted as saying in an article in a leading Swedish newspaper.

Hallgren's course, incidentally, is constructed around three phases of pessimism. It begins with the Greek stoics, goes on to the 19th century 'guru' of pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer and concludes with Buddhism. Hallgren explains that the movement for negative thinking is all about acknowledging reality, "even the ugly bits" and not about expecting the worst from life.