Study Finds It’s Important to Be an Optimist

College students who look on the bright side of things tend to get jobs and promotions faster and more easily than those who don’t.

So says a new National Bureau of Economic Research study titled The Importance of Being an Optimist: Evidence from Labor Markets. The study bears particular relevance to today’s college graduates given the persistently high unemployment rates that have dogged the nation as of late.

It says that those who possess “dispositional optimism” — that is, a personality trait associated with individuals who believe, whether correctly or incorrectly, that for the most part, good things happen to them more frequently than bad things — fare better in the job market.

Using the experience of MBA students to arrive at their findings, the authors of the study claim that “dispositional optimists experience significantly better job search outcomes than pessimists with similar skills.”

“During the job search process, they spend less effort searching and are offered jobs more quickly,” the study states. “They are choosier and are more likely to be promoted than others.

“Although we find optimists are more charismatic and are perceived by others to be more likely to succeed, these factors alone do not explain away the findings,” the study continues. “Most of the effect of optimism on economic outcomes stems from the part that is not readily observed by one's peers.”

Trying to pinpoint what sets optimists apart from others was no easy task. For instance, the researchers who conducted the study considered a number of divergent explanations for the various human behavioral dynamics at play

They considered the fact that optimists may be more motivated to work hard to achieve goals since they believe it will pay off in the end. On the other hand, the researchers noted, they may also be less motivated to work hard to achieve goals if they believed the goal was probably going to be achieved anyway, or that everything will be OK even if the goal is not achieved.

“But there are other consequences of optimism that are unequivocally positive,” the study notes. “One of the strongest correlates of dispositional optimism is positive coping.

“Optimists are more likely to actively engage problems, positively reframe situations, plan a course of action, and rely on social support.”

Jamaal Abdul-Alim is a staff writer for Campus Progress.

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