pessimism - Haiti Observer Blog

The Caribbean Islands, once you see one you see them all

A field research study on the subject of optimism has been conducted, and the results written up in the current issue of the Journal of Personality publication. Undertaken by Boston University social-science researchers, the study project correlated emotional, mental, and physical states in relation to levels of optimism or pessimism in study subjects' attitudes towards life.

Researchers interviewed 150,000 people living in 140 nations. The Caribbean nation of Haiti ranked third as the most pessimistic place in the world, behind Zimbabwe and Egypt at numbers one and two. Two characteristics were discovered that play a significant role on the rates of pessimism found in Africa and the Caribbean, those of poverty and illiteracy.

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