All optimists are alike, every pessimist is unique.

According to several previous studies, optimists generally report greater satisfaction with their social relationships and have larger networks. Kuniaki Yanagisawa and an interdisciplinary team combining social psychology and cognitive neuroscience asked the question: "But where does this come from? Recent work has shown that people occupying a central position in a social network react similarly to certain stimuli. It is therefore possible that those who share a similar attitude towards the future also have a common brain representation of it, which would facilitate their mutual understanding."

Different brain activity

To test this hypothesis, the researchers recruited 87 participants spanning the spectrum from pessimism to optimism (screened using scientifically validated tests and interviews). They asked them to imagine various future events, while their brain activity was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This technique allows for live visualization of neural activity patterns associated with thinking about the future. The team observed that optimists exhibited similar brain patterns when considering future events, while pessimists' brain patterns were significantly more diverse. According to Yanagisawa, "What was most striking about this study was that the abstract idea of 'thinking alike' was made visible through the patterns of brain activity."

The team also showed that the distinction between positive and negative events is more pronounced, on a neural level, in optimists than in pessimists. "In other words, optimistic people clearly perceive the difference between a favorable and an unfavorable future. They do not seek to reclassify negative scenarios positively, but process them in a more abstract and detached way, which lessens their emotional impact," Yanagisawa explains.

Optimists on the same wavelength… cerebral

So, for the psychologist, "the feeling of being on the same wavelength is not just a metaphor. The brains of optimists could, literally, share a common representation of the future." But is this shared mechanism innate or does it develop over time, through experience or dialogue? This is the next step this research team is taking.

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