When I hear the word optimist, I am reminded of the phrase, “an optimist is a pessimist not in possession of all the facts.”

When I first heard this I laughed and have ‘dined out’ on it more than once when the word comes up in conversation. I confess to being a born optimist – something I inherited from my mother who always sees the bright side of everything.

On reflection though this phrase could be seen to show optimists in a dim light. It could be inferring that optimists are dreamers, Walter Mittys and that blind optimism is no more than wishful thinking.

Optimists will always see a glass as half full. Pessimists see it not just as half empty but containing a liquid which is distasteful or even poisonous. Yet sometimes optimists can become the target of those with a cynical disposition.

Well I think that such blind optimism does lead itself to being open to criticism but it has too much of a bad press. To redress this situation, it’s time that we got a bit scientific about it.