Optimists vs pessimists - 6 Minute English

243,539 views ・ 2022-03-31

BBC Learning English


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00:08
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.
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I’m Neil.
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And I’m Sam.
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We often hear phrases such as, ‘dream big’
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or, ‘reach for the stars’ which reflect
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an optimistic view of life.
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Are you an optimist, Sam?
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I hope so!
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I try to see the positive side
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of life, even when something bad happens.
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It sounds like you’re a glass-half-full person –
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someone who always thinks
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that good things will happen.
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How about you, Neil?
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Are you optimistic?
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Look, things go wrong all the time -
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that’s a fact of life.
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Call me a pessimist
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if you like but I’m just being realistic.
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Hmm, it sounds like Neil is more
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of a glass-half-empty person, but the
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truth is that the age-old debate between
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optimism and pessimism is
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more complex than we think.
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Yes, whether you’re a sunny
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optimist or a gloomy pessimist may
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be determined more by your birthplace
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and your age than your attitude, as we’ll
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be finding out in this programme.
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Great. I’ve got a good feeling about this, Neil!
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But first, as usual, I have a question for you, Sam.
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Psychologists define optimism as an attitude
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which overestimates the chances of good
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things happening to you, while underestimating
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the chances of bad things occurring.
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So, what proportion of the British population,
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do you think, describe themselves as optimistic?
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Is it: a) 20 percent?
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b) 50 percent?
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or, c) 80 percent?
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I’ll choose the largest – 80 percent…
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OK, Sam. We’ll find out if your optimistic
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answer is the correct one later in
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the programme.
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Someone who probably wouldn’t agree with you,
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though, is BBC World Service listener, Hannah.
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Hannah grew up in Germany
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before moving to the United States.
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She thinks Americans tend to be more
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optimistic than people back home
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in Germany, as she told BBC World Service
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programme, CrowdScience:
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Well, I think the stereotypical perceptions
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of Germans is that we’re quite pessimistic
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and that kind of tends to come across
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as being a bit of a Debbie Downer,
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when in actuality, Germans just tend
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to be avid planners for all eventual negative
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eventualities as well… so that’s kind of
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us being pessimistic but actually being
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cautious, as opposed to for example,
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what I’ve notice in America that a lot
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of people tend to be hyper-optimistic.
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I’ve always admired how Americans
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tend to be able to sugarcoat everything.
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As a stereotypical pessimist,
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Hannah sometimes feels like a Debbie Downer.
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This expression is American slang for someone who
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makes others feel bad by focussing
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on the depressing aspects of things.
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Americans, on the other hand,
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are typically seen as optimists
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who tend to sugarcoat things –
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make things seem better than they really are.
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According to Hannah, many
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Americans are hyper-optimistic.
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She uses the prefix hyper to say that
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there is too much of a certain quality.
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Hyper-sensitive people are too sensitive;
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a hyper-optimist is too optimistic.
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Besides your country of birth, age
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is another consideration in the optimism debate.
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When we’re young we have our whole life ahead of us,
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and it’s easier to optimistically believe
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that everything’s going to be alright.
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The belief that everything’s
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going to be fine is called ‘the optimism bias’.
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It isn’t fixed but changes as we age -
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something neuroscientist,
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Professor Tali Sharot, explained to
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BBC World Service programme, CrowdScience:
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So it’s quite high in kids and teenagers –
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they think, ‘Oh, everything’s going to be fine’, you know,
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and then it goes down, down, down
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and it hits rock bottom in your midlife
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at which point the optimism bias is
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relatively small, and then it starts
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climbing up again and it’s quite high
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in the elderly population, and that
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goes absolutely against our view of
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the grumpy old man, or woman.
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After starting out high in children,
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the optimism bias hits rock bottom –
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the lowest possible level – in middle age,
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often because of work pressures,
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family responsibilities or caring for elderly parents.
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But optimism seems to increase
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again as we get older.
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This is surprising
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as it goes against the image we have
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of the grumpy old man – a phrase to
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describe someone who complains a lot,
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is moody and gets easily annoyed.
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Optimistic women, meanwhile,
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can look forward to longer, healthier lives.
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Good news for you then, Sam!
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But I’m sticking with my pessimism.
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If I anticipate things going wrong
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I don’t get disappointed when they do!
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That’s actually a fairly positive
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way of looking at things, Neil, but
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I’m not sure if most people would
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agree with you – or maybe they would…
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It depends on the answer to your question…
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Right. I asked Sam what proportion
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of British people describe themselves as optimistic.
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And optimistically, I said it was c) 80 percent.
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Which was… the correct answer!
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Of course it was.
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Whether you expect good or bad things to happen
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to you, you’re probably right.
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So why not focus on the sunny side of life, Neil?
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That way, you’ve got nothing to lose!
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OK, let’s recap the vocabulary
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from this programme, Sam.
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You’re certainly a glass-half-full person –
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someone with an optimistic attitude to life.
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And you’re something of a Debbie Downer -
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American slang for someone who brings
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everyone down by talking about the
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negative side of things.
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If you sugarcoat something, you
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make it appear more positive than it really is.
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The prefix hyper is used before
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an adjective to show having too
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much of that quality, for example
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hypercritical means being too critical.
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If something hits rock bottom it
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reaches its lowest possible level.
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And finally, the phrase grumpy old
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man can be used to describe someone
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who always complains, is intolerant
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and gets annoyed easily… a bit like Neil!
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Unfortunately our six minutes are up,
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but join us again soon for more
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trending topics and useful vocabulary
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here at 6 Minute English.
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Goodbye for now!
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Bye!
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