A study published in Nature Neuroscience concludes that the brain excels at processing good news about the future. For optimists it would seem that negative thoughts are pushed aside allowing you to have a positive outlook of the world.
The study, was investigating why human optimism is so pervasive when life continually presents us with situations that challenges these biases. In fact there is evidence to show that even when presented with information suggesting a negative outcome we will ignore that and go with the positive outcome. This is particularly alarming if it is your mortgage advisor expecting high profits.
Optimism does have a positive benefit for your health; there is reduced stress, lower rates of heart disease, less anxiety at what the future might hold. It perhaps increases risk taking and while this might be unwise if we are talking bungee jumping, if it encourages you out of your comfort zone and helps you to take positive action in your life perhaps that is no bad thing.
In the study scientists found that optimists were more likely to discard negative thoughts, than to update their beliefs. People have a fundamental bias so if the divorce rate is 50% then they don’t think it applies to them.
So while there are positive benefits to optimism you have to avoid underestimating risk.