Pollyannas, Pessimists, and the Science of Happiness

Abstract

With personal anecdotes, the author contrasts his natural pessimism with the outlook of his mother, a lifelong Pollyanna, and investigates the source of this core difference. He argues that, despite its scientific veracity and likely implications that nothing is cosmically ‘meant to be,’ Darwin’s theory of natural selection neither conclusively resolves metaphysical debates concerning the existence of god nor the existential question of which life perspective is most appropriate. Furthermore, based on interdisciplinary research from the field of positive psychology, the author rejects Jean-Paul Sartre’s alternative suggestion that we are either optimistic or cynical solely by choice. Contrary to Sartre’s ‘blank slate’ conception, these empirical findings indicate that a person’s baseline happiness level and natural outlook on life is genetically driven to a significant degree. While there is a ‘cortical lottery’ in this regard, environmental factors also play a key role a scientific result that fits nicely with Aristotle’s ‘golden mean’ theory of happiness.