Hope vs. Optimism

Harvard professor Arthur Brooks says the research that has linked optimism and human thriving makes no distinction between optimism and hope.  “But netting out the two concepts tends to show different levels of benefit.  One study in the journal Psychological Reports showed that although both optimism and hope drive down the likelihood of illness, hope has more power than optimism in doing so.”  Brooks offers three steps to increasing our hope for a better life.  And the good news is you can be a hopeless optimist or a hopeful pessimist.

Read More:  Arthur Brooks, The Atlantic