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Are Optimists All Alike? Optimism is a Smart Shared Brain Experience.
A Commentary by Victor Perton, Founder, The Centre for Optimism
Want calm, logical, future-ready thinkers? Choose optimists. Want scattered and chaotic thinking and fear in a crisis? Choose pessimists.
For leaders, educators, and communities striving for a brighter future, optimism isn’t merely a mindset; it is the indispensable strategy for undeniable success. I have long championed this truth: that optimism is the very essence of effective contemporary leadership, a vital tool for holistic wellness, and indeed, a profound national advantage. And now, brilliant Japanese scientists are illuminating this with irrefutable clarity, confirming what The Centre for Optimism has long observed in action:
The optimistic brain is clear and bright and better able to imagine the future.
A 2025 study entitled "Optimistic people are all alike: Shared neural representations supporting episodic future thinking among optimistic individuals", led by Kuniaki Yanagisawa at Kobe University, has given us a glimpse inside the optimistic brain, and what we find there is profound.
The Science: Neural Harmony of Optimism
The researchers defined optimism as a trait-level tendency to expect positive outcomes, measured through a well-established psychological test for general future expectations. At its simplest, optimism is an expectation that good things will happen and that things will work out in the end.
The researchers used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which tracks brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow. When a brain region becomes more active, it requires more oxygen, and fMRI can detect these shifts. It allows us to see, in real time, which parts of the brain light up when we imagine the future.
In this study, 75 healthy Japanese adults participated. They were asked to imagine emotionally charged future events, both positive and negative, while inside the scanner.
The researchers used a technique called intersubject representational similarity analysis, which compares how people’s brains respond when imagining the future, revealing shared patterns in optimistic thinking.
Optimists exhibited significantly higher neural similarity in the medial prefrontal cortex (a brain region tied to future thinking, decision-making, and self-reflection), an area of the brain used for decision-making, self-reflection, and imagining positive futures.
This supports earlier findings that this key prefrontal brain region activates when people envision desirable outcomes and engage in goal-oriented, hopeful thinking.
Even more fascinating? Optimists did not merely think positively; they think more clearly. Their brains distinguished between positive and negative future events with greater sharpness. They imagined futures in focused, constructive detail.
These brain-based findings reveal why optimistic leaders stand out; they not only think positively, they think with a clarity that inspires others.
The Optimist’s Advantage
Several global studies this year have confirmed what I have seen in my research: people want optimistic leaders with a clear vision.
Optimistic leaders generate followers and loyalty because their minds are aligned with hope, purpose, and often, with one another. They radiate clarity and confidence. And now we know, their brains are part of the reason why. Their minds are aligned with optimism, hope, with purpose, and often, with each other. They radiate clarity and confidence. And now we know, their brains are part of the reason why.
Pessimists, by contrast, are neurologically adrift. Their thoughts are disordered and reactive. Their inner world mirrors the crisis and chaos they fear.
What strikes me most about this study is that optimists do not deny adversity or reinterpret bad events as good. Instead, they process hardship with psychological distance. They keep difficulty far enough to maintain clarity, but close enough to learn. They keep moving forward, eyes on the horizon.
The Japanese research shows optimism is not about ignoring hardship. It is about holding it at the proper distance to keep moving forward.
The Anna Karenina Insight: Order vs. Chaos
You may know Tolstoy’s famous line:
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
The researchers drew directly on this insight. They propose an Anna Karenina principle of optimism:
Optimists tend to think in a similar, coherent manner. Pessimists, by contrast, think in fragmented, disordered ways.
Optimists in the study showed shared, structured neural patterns in a key prefrontal brain region responsible for future thinking, decision-making, and self-reflection. Their brains processed imagined futures with remarkable similarity. This shows a shared architecture of optimistic and hopeful cognition.
Pessimists, on the other hand, displayed highly varied neural responses. Their thinking was disjointed and difficult to generalise. This may explain why pessimism rarely leads to unified action. Pessimistic thinking is inward, chaotic, and isolating.
Optimism, however, enables clarity, cohesion, and forward momentum. It is not just a trait, it is a collective cognitive strength.
This Is Why We Train Optimists
At The Centre for Optimism, we do not just inspire people. We train them to think like optimists—deliberately, joyfully, and practically. This study confirms why it matters. Shared optimism is not only beneficial for the heart and also for the brain, leadership, and the community.
Through courses like Optimism: The How and Why, we help people explore the foundations and benefits of a hopeful mindset. And through personalised masterclasses in Magnetic Optimism, offered one-to-one or in small groups, we cultivate the confident, radiant leaders our world needs.
Want better teams? Train optimistic thinkers.
Want resilient leaders? Teach them to imagine better futures.
Want national advantage? Embed optimism in your civic culture deliberately and joyfully. This study shows why it matters. Shared optimism is not only good for the heart. It is good for the brain.
Four Habits to Strengthen Optimism
After eight years of studying, teaching, and adopting the habits of an optimist, I have witnessed the remarkable power these simple practices have to transform lives, teams, and communities. These are not theories—they are lived truths, grounded in science and experience.
- Visualise Your Best Possible Future – You can join my online version, or do this with each change of season. Take a few minutes to vividly picture a day in your best future life where you are, what you are doing, and how it feels. The more detail you include, the more your brain’s future-thinking network is strengthened. Practising this regularly helps hardwire clarity and motivation.
- Ask Uplifting Questions – Inspired by Appreciative Inquiry, a strengths-based framework that mirrors the clarity and coherence found in the optimistic brain, ask empowering, possibility-focused questions. Try: “What is the best thing happening today?” or “When have I felt most alive this week?” These questions reorient your thinking toward energy, progress, and connection.
- Surround Yourself with Optimists – Neural alignment happens in a community. Hope is contagious. Join communities that celebrate solutions and progress, limit time with chronic complainers, and prioritise voices that uplift and energise you.
- Practise Gratitude and Joyful Anticipation – Start and end your day by noting three things you are grateful for and one thing you are looking forward to. This rewires your focus toward what is good and energises your outlook with hope for what is next.
Final Word
The Kobe research is more than a study. It is an invitation:
To lead with clarity.
To think in harmony.
And to build the future with brains trained in optimism.
If you want clarity, alignment, and the energy to build a better future,
Choose optimism.
Self-Improvement • Mental Health • 39 episodes
That Optimism Man Victor Perton
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