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On Friday Nov 9th, the Wall Street Journal ran a column on how the brain
of optimists differs from everyone else's. In course of explaining it,
they happened to define the habits of day traders. Here's the quote of
the text. No wonder I don't day trade.
Optimists, the Duke finance scholars discovered, worked longer hours
every week, expected to retire later in life, were less likely to smoke
and, when they divorced, were more likely to remarry. They also saved
more, had more of their wealth in liquid assets, invested more in
individual stocks and paid credit-card bills more promptly.
Yet those who saw the future too brightly -- people who in the survey
overestimated their own likely lifespan by 20 years or more -- behaved
in just the opposite way, the researchers discovered.
Rather than save, they squandered. They postponed bill-paying. Instead
of taking the long view, they barely looked past tomorrow.
Statistically, they were more likely to be day traders. "Optimism is a
little like red wine," said Duke finance professor and study co-author
Manju Puri. "In moderation, it is good for you; but no one would suggest
you drink two bottles a day."
Mapping brain behavior with an fMRI medical imaging scanner, NYU
neuroscientists Talia Sharot and Elizabeth Phelps identified the neural
networks underlying this optimistic outlook. Their work, published in
Nature, was presented earlier this week at the annual meeting of the
Society for Neuroscience in San Diego.
Then, of course, they looked at the brain of lawyers, the pessimists of
the world. Here's what they said about them.
Indeed, the researchers suspect that the breakdown of this brain network
may contribute to clinical depression. All in all, Dr. Seligman said,
optimists tend to do better in life than their talents alone might
suggest.
Except lawyers.
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."
Super
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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