Optimism and the Self-Serving Bias...

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

Researchers at the Positive Psychology Center (University of Pennsylvania) have shown that optimistic campaign speeches are correlated with winning presidential races. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that the candidates are optimistic because they're winning. Surprisingly, these studies reveal that McCain and Obama are equally optimistic! 

Apparently, other, related studies have shown that Republican candidates show a higher level of internality when explaining positive events and a lower level of internality when explaining negative events, that is, they accept credit for good events and blame others as the cause for negative outcomes. Shocking!

                                                                                 Excelsior!

                                                                                 C.L.Sosis