Hard-Wired Optimism

By tracking brain activity in 15 young adults while having them imagine future scenarios, researchers have located areas of the brain involved in optimism. Scenarios ranging from receiving money to attending a funeral were presented to the subjects, and when scenarios involving optimism were imagined, two regions in particular fired up with activity. These regions, the rostral anterior cingulate and amygdala, are also affected in cases of depression.

What's more, researchers observed something they are calling the human "optimism bias"

"For example, people expect to live longer and be healthier than average, they underestimate their likelihood of getting a divorce, and overestimate their prospects for success on the job market. (...) Humans expect positive events in the future even when there is no evidence to support such expectations."

Read more here.

Image used under a Creative Commons license; by Harpersbizarre from Flickr.