A growing body of work has established that in laboratory studies, subjects who are less trusting of their peers make less money in investment and economic scenarios. For instance, participants in one 2009 study underestimated how many partners would return their money in an economics game, so they underinvested and wound up with lower earnings than they could have. A paper, published online in May in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, now finds some real-world evidence of the financial harm of cynicism.
Analyzing data from national surveys in the U.S. and Germany, psychologists Olga Stavrova and Daniel Ehlebracht of the University of Cologne found that people who reported cynical views of human nature had smaller incomes (by thousands of dollars) two and nine years later, compared with their more optimistic peers. The researchers ruled out several proposed explanations for the link between cynicism and income, including personality, health, education, age, gender and employment status.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member