What If We Were All Optimists?
Surprise! You're more optimistic than you think. PBS Digital Studios is grateful to Bill and Melinda Gates for their support. If you'd like to take a look at the 2018 Annual Letter, you...
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Imagine you’re driving and you hear your phone buzz – you’ve got a message. So, do you read it? Now in 2016, there were more than 40,000 traffic deaths, a 14% increase over 2014 – the worst increase in decades. And experts believe distracted driving is to blame. But what are your odds of having an accident while you’re holding your phone? Of course you tell yourself, “this will never happen to me” It’s not that you can’t understand the odds. You just think you’re safe thanks to your brain’s natural optimism. [Brain Craft intro] Scientists call it the optimism bias. It is measured as the difference between a person's expectation and the actual outcome. It means that we tend to predict the future slightly better than it turns out. We ...
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Imagine you’re driving and you hear your phone buzz – you’ve got a message. So, do you read it? Now in 2016, there were more than 40,000 traffic deaths, a 14% increase over 2014 – the worst increase in decades. And experts believe distracted driving is to blame. But what are your odds of having an accident while you’re holding your phone? Of course you tell yourself, “this will never happen to me” It’s not that you can’t understand the odds. You just think you’re safe thanks to your brain’s natural optimism. [Brain Craft intro] Scientists call it the optimism bias. It is measured as the difference between a person's expectation and the actual outcome. It means that we tend to predict the future slightly better than it turns out. We ...
