Although far less stable, the results show that most people expect the economic situation in their home country to get worse or stay the same. Compare that with the response of the same group of individuals considering the future of the economic situation in their home country. From the end of 1995 to the middle of 2015, around 60% of people predict that their job situation will remain the same, while 20% expect their situation to improve. This optimism persists even when people are presented with the relevant statistics.Д¬onsider the following graphs from the European UnionвЂ™s Eurobarometer surveys they report peopleвЂ™s expectations about their own personal job situation and of the economic situation in their home country. Another example is asking smokers to estimate their chances of getting cancer and again, most would underestimate their risk. Yet today roughly 40% of marriages in the UK end in divorce. If you were to ask newlywed couples to estimate the probability they will divorce in the future, they would likely reject the possibility outright. That is, we tend to be optimistic rather than realistic when considering our individual future. Tali Sharot, associate professor of psychology at UCL, has popularised the idea of an innate optimism bias built into the human brain. It is a peculiar empirical phenomenon that while people tend to be optimistic about their own future, they can at the same time be deeply pessimistic about the future of their nation or the world.

Author of optimism