1 yr. ago • 93%

Low cognition predicts unrealistic optimism. High cognition predicts realism and pessimism.

Science @lemmy.ml A new study reveals that excessive optimism can lead to poor decision-making, particularly in financial matters

Hacker News @derp.foo Cognitive Ability and Miscalibrated Financial Expectations

28 comments

Fancy way of saying "ignorance is bliss."

43
The smartest people I know also always seem to be the most depressed and most knowledgeable about the world

17
TLDR just look at this chart: https://journals.sagepub.com/cms/10.1177/01461672231209400/asset/images/large/10.1177_01461672231209400-fig2.jpeg

The choice of paratheses make this paper so hard to read:

"We also find a negative (positive) correlation between cognitive ability and pessimistic (realistic) beliefs"

12
- That's a common convention in academic papers to demonstrate pairs of correlations, it's the same as writing
  
  "We also find a positive correlation between cognitive ability and realistic beliefs AND a negative correlation between cognitive ability and pessimistic beliefs."
  
  10
  
  I aslo cn tip lik dis an u no Wat I mnt. Itz lot shrtr 2. y dnt acadmiks do dis? its highr cognitv lod 2 thy lik dat rite?
  
  There's a reason (no good reason) normal (academics) human beings don't (do) use that kind of positive (negative) writing.
  
  My field has different but equally terrible high cognitive load writing conventions, and I call them out as bad every time.
  
  2
  
  Thank you for explaining that. I hate it.
  
  2
  
  I end up reading a lot of academic journals, and the way that they're written I swear are intentionally obtuse. Sometimes people say "they only seem that way because they are communicating complex ideas", but when I read papers in my own field I know that that's not really the case. I once made it three quarters of the way through an article before I realized that all they were doing was slapping a PID on the problem they were defining. You could have written the same article and made it understandable to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the subject but instead they had to make it so obtuse that practitioners in the field would really struggle.
  
  0
Finally proof that oppressed gamers like us are smarterer.

-2
I hate these "I'm so smart for being a depressive pieve of shit" posts. Pessimism is just a function of an unhealthy lifestyle and mindset.

-34
- Well, we found our example of low cognition.
  
  41
  
  I mean plenty of reasons to be depressed, we have destroyed our planet, we are in the middle of the biggest mass extinction in 140 million years, and we can't afford anything anymore. But yeah it's a mindset or something.
  
  20
- Headline reader, you are.
  
  10
- Yeah, the world is going peachy, everything is just fine. Not like we're on the verge of jackpot, religious morons on the rise, wars, antivax stuff.. it's the mindset right right
  
  8
  
  To be fair this is the best time to be alive ever.
  
  -1
- You should read the paper. It is saying something quiet different from what you think it's saying.
  
  7
  
  Don't be too hard on them, it's difficult to read with low cognition
  
  6
- Can you point out to us who's saying that they're smart for being depressive?
  
  3
- Pessimism is just a function of an unhealthy lifestyle and mindset.
  
  Can you elaborate your perspective? Do you think pessimism serves no useful purpose? Why do you think it exists?
  
  1
- The magic rock you are bitching on was in fact, invented by people with SO MUCH DEPRESSION, go pull humanity up by YOUR bootstraps YOU coward, and stop pointing fingers.
  
  1

You've viewed 28 comments.