An Optimistic World

Anika’s Zen and the Power of Gratitude. A new weekly column. Every Sunday.

 

Different Lens

 

There are so many ways to look at the world’s people. Gender, for example. Looking at the world from the lens of ‘men and women’, there are roughly an equal number of men and women, though men hold a lead with 102 men for every 100 women, as of 2020.

 

Left-Handed

 

A statistic that has always fascinated me is that of left-handed versus right-handed people in the world. According to Psychology Today, there are approximately 708 million left-handers in the world, translating to 9.2% of the population (Papadatou-Pastou et al., 2019). That makes it approximately 1 in every 10 individuals in the world. Men, it seems, are more likely to be left-handed than women.

What surprised me while looking into this? Cats and dogs can be left-handed too, with the number being as high as 40%! A recent meta-analysis (a statistical integration of many different scientific studies) of paw preferences in cats and dogs shows that about 36 to 46% of cats were left-pawed (Ocklenburg et al., 2019). In dogs, the number was higher at 31-53% being lefties. Guess the next time I ask a dog for a paw, I am going to pay better attention to the one it offers!

 

Intelligence Quotient

 

Another lens that I have always found interesting, is IQ. Intelligent Quotient or IQ has, for a long time, been used as a measure of human intelligence. Tested by standardized tests, a higher IQ score usually means that you are smarter, while a lower IQ score indicates lower intelligence.

Countries have been ranked for intelligence too. The smartest countries in the world, when it comes to IQ, are:

1. Hong Kong (108)
2. Singapore (108)
3. South Korea (106)
4. China (105)
5. Japan (105)
6. Taiwan (104)
7. Italy (102)
8. Switzerland (101)
9. Mongolia (101)
10. Iceland (101)

 

Mensa

 

When I was growing up, IQ was such a big deal that almost all of us dreamt of making it into Mensa, the exclusive club belonging to the smartest people in the world. Founded in England in 1946, by barrister Roland Berrill, and scientist-cum-lawyer Dr. Lance Ware, Mensa’s original aim was to create a non-political society that is free from all racial or religious distinctions.

“Mensa” means “table” in Latin. Named thus, Mensa became a round-table society where ethnicity, color, creed, national origin, age, politics, educational and social background are all completely irrelevant. In fact, that was and has always been only qualification for membership: a score within the top 2% of the general population, on an approved intelligence test.

In a world of 7.8 billion people, there are currently only 145,000 Mensans in 100 countries in the world. What’s fascinating about IQ in general, and Mensa in particular is that when it comes to the members, no single size fits all. A member could be as young as 2 and as old as 100 years. Most are between 20 and 60 years of age. Preschoolers, high schoolers, school and college dropouts, truck drivers, police officers, military personnel, doctors, delivery drivers, farmers, singers, glassblowers, scientists – you name it and they are Mensans. Looks like when it comes to IQ, there is no single face that represents it best!

 

Optimists and Pessimists

 

My favorite lens, however, is that of Optimism and Pessimism. I call myself a born optimist. But I wanted to better understand what does optimism really mean and how does one measure it?

People differ in the degree to which they possess confidence and hope that future events will turn out positively. This attitude is called optimism and it is commonly assessed as a trait. Optimism is a state of mind and therefore, may change with time and circumstances.

 

What Determines Optimism?

 

There are so many factors that determine optimism. Like in most things, genetics and the environment play a role. But so does learned attitudes throughout our life. Most psychologists agree that an optimistic outlook serves us better in life than a pessimistic one. A study of 500 pairs of twins, half reared together and half adopted apart early in life, found that optimism is only about 25% inherited. “But then the rest is shaped by stuff that happens to you across your life, says William Chopik, MSU assistant professor of psychology and lead author. “Your parents, how did they treat you? How did your relationships with your friends go? Are you a good student? Did you experience a lot of success early in life?”

Age is another important factor. Chopik is a co-author of a recent study that looked at nearly 75,000 people, including 22,150 Americans from ages 18 to 104. The study found that optimism generally increases throughout younger adulthood, flattens out between about ages 55 and 70, and then decreases again after that. “Earlier in life, when you’re a teenager or in college,” Chopik says, “you invest a lot in furthering your career and kind of getting ahead in life.” After, you might tend to your family or hobbies. These activities boost your optimism that life will go well.

“Another thing is that you just get better at stuff (remember Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule?). You become a more competent person, so that might also increase optimism.”

So, can one measure optimism? It looks like one can. The Life Orientation Test (LOT) is a standard psychological instrument. It assesses one’s dispositional level of optimism, provides meaningful insight into possible interventions, such as those to address harmful thought patterns. Psychologies hence find this instrument a useful tool for any practitioner’s toolkit.

 

Why Optimism Matters

 

Optimism does a great deal for us. It has been linked to happy romantic relationships, a reduction in sick days, lower levels of pain and even a reduction in being cognitively impaired.

Optimistic people feel better about life, save more money while believing they will retire early and tend to work harder.

Are you an optimist? Let’s start here. Pick one:

1. I expect more good things to happen than bad things.
2. I rarely count on good things to happen to me.

It seems rather simplistic but if you chose A, you’re an optimist. If you chose B, you’re a pessimist. However, it is also true that at any given point of time, you could be oscillating between A and B – feeling optimistic about certain things and feeling pessimistic about others. And that, psychologists say, is ok.

 

Growing Optimism

 

So, how does one grow optimism? What is Optimism’s secret Miracle-Gro?

Foster optimism by asking yourself: “What is my best possible outcome in the future?” Then, take it a step further by thinking about possible challenges as well concrete ways to overcome them.

Practicing gratitude, psychologists have determined, goes a long way. Gratitude is an attitude of looking at all that is well and right with the day and with life. Being kind to other people helps too. “Because even when we’re in the midst of a pandemic like this, and things seem out of control, there’s always something good to look at and be grateful for.”

I, for example, look around and see the rise of tools like Zoom and video chat as great ways to keep in touch with loved ones, even after the pandemic is over.

 

Sun, Sand and Bob Marley

 

Looking into this, I wondered, are some countries more optimistic than others. Can there be an entire group of people who are generally more optimistic than others? Does being part of a group of optimistic people help?

The answer surprised me. I thought with all that sun, sand, and Bob Marley music, that some of the most optimistic countries in the world would be in the Caribbean. It turns out, China is more optimistic than any other country, with 41% of respondents saying they think that the world is getting better. On the optimism scale, China is followed by Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the UAE. On the other hand, the most pessimistic countries in the world? France tops the list, followed by Hong Kong and Australia.

 

A Better World Already

 

 

So, it looks like, the smartest nations in the world are also the most pessimistic? I wonder why. We, after all, have much to be optimistic about. Across the globe, extreme poverty and hunger have fallen and child labor is on the decline. For the first time ever, people in developed countries (a.k.a, us) have more leisure time (which we usually spend infinitely scrolling, but that’s a separate article all by itself!). Life expectancy is rising, while child mortality is falling. People have been getting taller for centuries now, teen births in the US are down and habits like smoking are down too. Homicide rates have fallen dramatically with peace and security up overall, across the globe. More people in the world live in a democracy and are going to school longer. And, access to the internet has gone up with rising levels of literacy too!

Contrary to the hype that social media creates, the world is actually a better place today than it has ever been.

 

In Deep Gratitude For My Optimism

 

 

I have always been an optimist, but I never stopped to think why. I just wore it like a second skin, and in almost all situations it surfaced as my “why not” attitude. Did it sometimes make me go where angels feared to tread? Of course. But more often than not, it helped me manifest all that I believed could be possible. My optimism made me move countries. This optimism has helped me make new friends, no matter what the situation. My optimism continues to make me believe that we will leave a better world for those who come next.

I believe it is my optimism that makes the world a better place for me and for those around me. So, will it help me lead a longer life? Will it add more wrinkles to my face with those impromptu laughs? Perhaps, it will save me in situations by always looking at the bright side? Who knows? But this I know for sure. It is my optimism that has often looked up at a cloudy sky and literally, made the sun come out!

 

Read my previous blogs below:

• Anika’s Zen and the Power of Gratitude
• Sack Full of Breaths
• The Power of Silence: A Date with Myself
• Travel Through the Glass
• The Elusive Trophy
• The Joy of Everyday
• Does Love Have a Color?
• My Neighborhood, My Tribe
• The Snow Persisted
• Lucky Me, a Woman
• Science, the Real Hero
• Where Diamonds Fail

 

 

Anika Sharma is a digital thought leader, a mother, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. She was recently named as one of the top 150 digital global leaders to follow in 2021. When she is not busy working or raising her two teenage children, you can find her planting herbs in her garden, meditating with her friends, swimming long laps or filling rooms with her cackling laughter. Contact her at anikadas@gmail.com or on twitter

 

If you enjoyed this blog, read about the Many Benefits of Gratitude, Covid-19: How I am Learning to Cope, Seven Ways to Manage Your Emotions, Covid-19 and Beyond and the Rules of Simple Living.