Are humans hard-wired for optimism?

Meanwhile, on the neuroscience front, more qualities have been mapped out in the brain.OPTIMISM: scientists at New York University have found that our brains tend to visualise positive future events more intensely and vividly than negative events. A region called the rostral anterior cingulate cortex lights up on MRI scans when we think of hopes and aspirations. “This region of the cortex may actually be taking information and transforming it in a way that creates this optimism bias,” says Dr Elizabeth Phelps. Researchers speculate that optimism may have an evolutionary survival value.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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