4. Optimism is good for our health

Scientists have discovered that people who are too optimistic about the future may have “faulty” brains. Their study, in the journal Nature Neuroscience, concluded that the reason many people always see light at the end of the tunnel may be because of an inability to sensibly deal with risk. They even say this over-optimism could have been a cause of the 2008 global financial crisis, with bankers failing to accept or see the riskiness of their investments. Report author Dr Tali Sharot of London’s University College analyzed brain scans to measure the activity taking place in patients who were asked to think about their future. He found that negative predictions were ignored in the minds of optimists.

In the study, Dr Sharot gave volunteers 80 different negative situations ranging from unpleasant to disastrous. These included getting divorced, having your car stolen and developing cancer. Many of the volunteers underestimated the chances of these situations happening to them. Dr Sharot said: "The more optimistic we are, the less likely we are to be influenced by negative information about the future." He added: “Smoking kills messages don't work as people think their chances of cancer are low. The divorce rate is 50%, but people don't think it's the same for them." He also said: “Seeing the glass as half full rather than half empty can be a positive thing. It can lower stress and anxiety and be good for our health and well-being.”

www.BreakingNewsEnglish.com

Warm up activities:

1. What are you most positive about? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the ones you’re most positive about at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

Ideas	Rank
your health
your financial security
being in control of your life
job / career
your country’s future
world peace
the planet’s health
your happiness

2. In pairs/groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring:

scientists / discovered / brains / inability / financial crisis / investments / predictions / volunteers / disastrous / developing cancer / optimistic / influenced / positive thinking

3. Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘brain’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

Vocabulary and Speaking

1. Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

Vocabulary extension: choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. Read the statements first and decide whether a-h below are true (T) or false (F). Then work in pairs to discuss your opinion.

a. The new drug Optimism cures over a dozen common illnesses.

b. Optimism helps people with poor vision see light better in tunnels.

c. Over-optimism may have been a factor in the 2008 financial crisis.

d. Optimists paid little or no regard to negative predictions.

e. A scientist asked volunteers to think about 80 happy experiences.

f. Volunteers accurately assessed the chances of bad things happening.

g. The scientist said people disregarded warnings on cigarette packs.

h. The scientists said optimism can be a good way to reduce stress.

3. Match the following synonyms from the article.

1. discovered	a. because
2 optimistic	b. manage
3. deal with	c. examined
4. analyzed	d. scenarios
5. predictions	e. likelihood
6. situations	f. found
7. chances	g. probable
8. likely	h. hopeful
9. as	i. stress
10. anxiety	j. forecasts

4. Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one choice is possible):

1. people who are too optimistic	a. the minds of optimists
2 see light at the	b. information
3. a cause of the 2008 global	c. of cancer are low
4. analyzed brain scans to	d. about the future
5. negative predictions were ignored in	e. unpleasant to disastrous
6. negative situations ranging from	f. financial crisis
7. the chances of these situations	g. measure the activity
8. influenced by negative	h. well-being
9. people think their chances	i. end of the tunnel
10. good for our health and	j. happening to them

5. Look in your dictionary to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms for the words ‘neuro’ and ‘science’.

• Share your findings with your partners.

• Make questions using the words you found.

• Ask your partner / group your questions.

6. Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.

• Ask your partner / group your questions.

7. Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

• faulty	• 80
• light	• getting
• deal	• situations
• see	• less
• measure	• glass
• minds	• stress

STUDENT OPTIMISM SURVEY

Write five questions about optimism in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1	STUDENT 2	STUDENT 3
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.

• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

OPTIMISM DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS

a) What did you think when you read the headline?

b) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘optimism’?

c) Are you more of an optimist or a pessimist?

d) Do you think optimism is good for your health? Why?

e) Have you ever thought you might have a ”faulty” brain?

f) When was the last time the phrase “see the light at the end of the tunnel” applied to you?

g) Do you think optimism or greed was more responsible for the 2008 global financial crisis?

h) What do you think about risk? Are you a risk taker?

i) Do you ignore negative predictions and always look on the bright side of life?

j) Who are the biggest optimists and pessimists you know?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS

a) Did you like reading this article?

b) Would you like to volunteer for a scientific study?

c) Are you optimistic about your own future? Why?

d) How do you deal with unpleasant or disastrous situations?

e) Are you optimistic about the future of the world?

f) Do you take notice of health warnings or statistics that tell us 50% of marriages end in divorce?

g) What does seeing the glass half full or half empty mean? Is there a similar saying in your language?

h) What advice would you give to a pessimist?

i) What would you like to be more optimistic about?

j) What questions would you like to ask Dr Tali Sharot?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What was the most interesting thing you heard?

2. Was there a question you didn’t like?

3. Was there something you totally disagreed with?

4. What did you like talking about?

5. Which was the most difficult question?

OPTIMISM PRESENTATION

Make a poster about optimism. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?