I’ve always been a bit jealous of those natural optimists, seeing the world through their own sunshine-filled glasses (Credit card statement due? An opportunity to boost your credit score. Got lost driving? Now you now where that mall on the other side of town is.) Optimists maintains that (naively, if you ask us pessimists), despite the inevitable bumps in the road, life turns out pretty darn well most of the time.
Most of us know which category we generally fit in, and most of us have also read enough self-help magazine articles to know that optimism is the way to go—longer life, better health, you name it, they get it. But are we born this way—predestined to see that glass half-full and therefore predestined to lead happier, healthier lives? What if we’re genetically programmed to do the opposite? What can us glass-half-empties do?
Genetically Speaking
Turns out, we are genetically determined toward the way we see that glass of milk. Studies have shown that people carrying a particular version of a gene are more likely to suffer from depression and attempted suicide when faced with traumatic events—in other words, they have a gene that biases them toward dwelling on negative events (so stop blaming your childhood!). This gene promotes the activity of another gene, whose protein product helps to transports serotonin, often referred to as the happy chemical. Serotonin affects many aspects of our behavior, including mood. Our genes—specifically the ones that regulate serotonin distribution around our bodies—play a role in our starry-eyed (or not-so-starry eyed) outlooks.
As with all genes, we’re born with two copies. Elaine Fox, head of the psychology department at the University of Essex in the UK, led a study on how variances in these genes play a role in how we process negative and positive material.
Her study asked approximately one hundred people to choose between two images—one with very positive or very negative connotations and the other neutral. They found that those with the optimistic genetics (more on that later) selected positive images over neutral, and, in a choice between a negative and a neutral, they actively avoided the negative.
