Blog #1: In Denial: Why we’re still stressed

A survey from the American Psychological Association’s was recently released. This surveyed showed that a large amount of Americans are stressed. These results were not very surprising to me at all. The idea that stress can lead to serious health issues like heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and depression had people questioning why so many people do such a poor job at managing their stress levels. The people conducting the study say that Americans’ reason for poorly managing their stress levels is due to what is called “optimism bias”. David Ropeik, author of “How Risky Is It, Really?” says optimism bias is “a natural human inclination to see our situation and our future through rose-colored glasses”. This means that people see their future as better than what is really logical for it to be. The example in the article says that when someone is asked how many times they will be hospitalized in the next five years, their estimation will be much lower than what is likely for their health conditions. Being optimistic is not a bad quality until people’s perceptions of situations bring them into denial rather than driving them to do something about it. Optimism bias can cause people to be less worried about events that they probably should be concerned about. The bias can allow people to deny that stress is bad for their health, which is much more harmful than the relief that being optimistic brings. Dr. Tali Sharot, author of “The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Mind”, says “there is nothing wrong with people having the belief that they’re going to be okay, as long as it doesn’t end there.” I found this article very interesting because I never thought of being optimistic as potentially being a harmful quality to humans. In some situations it is better to worry so that the appropriate action can be taken to fix it instead of believing it will fix itself. 

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/18/optimism-may-keep-stress-levels-up/?hpt=he_c2/