This suggests that they harness their negative mood to motivate themselves to perform better. Pessimism can also be more beneficial than optimism in situations where you are waiting for news about an outcome and there is no opportunity to influence the outcome (such as waiting for the results of a job interview).

Are pessimists more successful?

They found that pessimists - those whose forecasts did not match their realisations - earned 30 per cent more than optimists.

Are pessimists more intelligent?

Despite the record of things getting better for most people most of the time, pessimism isn't just more common than optimism, it also sounds smarter. It's intellectually captivating, and paid more attention to than the optimist who is often viewed as an oblivious sucker.