A Certain Level of Pessimism Has Its Benefits

Is the glass half full, or half empty? That is a tired old argument about characterizing someone in a negative light as a pessimist. As if recognizing the glass as full or empty means you are a positive or negative person.

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All the positivity-hype in recent decades, from the books, blogs and seminars for self-improvement, tries to get people to think that whatever they want to happen can happen if they believe it's possible. And sure, optimizing your mindset to motivate you to produce the results you want in life is a good way to get what you want. You can even make yourself feel good just by thinking optimistically about the potential outcomes in your future. Whether it happens or not, you can still generate positive states of well-being.

Pessimism gets a bad reputation overall. Certainly, people who are pessimistic all the time are the reason that pessimistic thinking is looked at as a negative modality in life. But pessimism isn't only about negative thinking. You can have a realistic appraisal about future outcomes that aren't all sunshine and rainbows through positive-only thinking. Having a concern about negative outcomes isn't a bad thing.

A defensive pessimist is a type of pessimist that can use negative thinking to reach goals in life. Contrary to what many people think, pessimism can help people succeed and get unexpected rewards. This is a specific type of thinking, not the main type of pessimism of blaming ourselves for negative outcomes in our lives, which certainly doesn't have the same potential for us to succeed as we erroneously find fault with ourselves even when there is none.

Some people have anxiety about future expectations. Defensive pessimism allows people to pursue a goal, rather than run the opposite direction. By setting low expectations of an outcome, it doesn't mean you don't have to pursue a certain plan. Looking at all the ways something can go wrong sets up a worst-case scenario for an outcome in reality. This can lead to anticipating and planning our way around such outcomes to make sure they don't actually happen.

For example, expecting a job to be hard to get hired for, and that you won't get hired, can lead you to practice more for an interview and actually get the job. This would also result in an unexpected reward, i.e. of getting the job.

If a defensive pessimist is put into a good mood, they can often perform poorly. But if they remain in a bad mood where they imagine negative outcomes, they often perform better by harnessing the threat potential to motivate themselves to do better.

Pessimism in general can also help in terms of having expectations and hope for an outcome. Positive thinking or optimism can lead us to have higher expectations and hope. If an outcome doesn't meet our expectations or hopes we have, then we are hit harder and experience greater disappointment, negative mood and a decrease in well-being. Pessimism can thus reward us unexpectedly, rather than being overly optimistic and positive and not getting the reward we expect.

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Defensive pessimism also has health benefits, whereby preventive actions are undertaken in order to avoid negative health, such as anticipating the chances of getting sick during a flu outbreak where they wash their hands more frequently and are more careful about putting their fingers to their mouth, etc.

The coping mechanism of defensive pessimists is what sets them apart from the standard negative thinking of regular pessimists. They are more effective at preparing for situations and don't avoid them altogether. The negative expectations motivate defensive pessimists to act and be more prepared in order to control the future outcomes in their lives, as opposed to avoiding it like regular pessimists might do, or expecting things to magically work out in their favor like some optimists do.

Other people might not like hearing about a pessimistic outlook, but it can be beneficial by being more realistic about potential negative outcomes and maximizing our success by planning to avoid them. Having realistic outcomes involved seeing the negative potential, not simply being blind-sided by positivity.

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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References:

• Effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being: Theoretical overview and empirical update
• The positive psychology of negative thinking
• Pessimistic Explanatory Style Is a Risk Factor for Physical Illness:
• Defensive Pessimism, Anxiety, and the Complexity of Evaluating Self-Regulation
• The effects of negative reflection for defensive pessimists: Dissipation or harnessing of threat?
• The Costs of Optimism and the Benefits of Pessimism
• Constant vigilance: Heritage values and defensive pessimism in coping with severe acute respiratory syndrome in Singapore
• Who Looks Forward to Better Health? Personality Factors and Future Self-Rated Health in the Context of Chronic Illness
• Distinguishing defensive pessimism from depression: Negative expectations and positive coping mechanisms
• The surprising benefits of being a pessimist

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