Health, Culture, and Society @ Broome

Join the Health Stream for a screening of

SICKO
Monday, 11/26
Meet in the Lobby of Broome at 7:15PM

Discussion to follow with Prof. Rogan Kersh

from the WSJ Heath Blog:

A belief that good things will happen in our lives appears to be hard-wired in our brains, Robert Lee Hotz writes in his WSJ column today.

nullBeing somewhat optimistic is often related to positive behaviors, such as working hard, saving money and taking care of our health. (The images from NYU at right show greater activity in the brain’s rostral anterior cingulate cortex (top) and amygdala (bottom) when subjects imagined positive future events.)

Optimism is so fundamental to us that it probably relates somehow to basic survival. But beware of extreme optimism — that’s more likely to lead to frivolous spending and activities like day trading, he writes.

The exception to the rule, however, appears to be lawyers. Hotz writes:

Surveying law students at the University of Virginia, he found that pessimists got better grades, were more likely to make law review and, upon graduation, received better job offers. There was no scientific reason. “In law,” he said, “pessimism is considered prudence.”

So who were the bigger pessimists? Merck’s lawyers? Or those for the plaintiffs? Sorry, we had to ask.