What is it about?
Why do optimistic people often get along so well with others? In this study, we found that when optimistic individuals imagine future events, their brain activity patterns look similar—especially in a region called the medial prefrontal cortex. In contrast, pessimists each show unique brain patterns. This suggests that optimists may share a common way of thinking about the future, which could help explain why they connect more easily with others.
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Why is it important?
Most neuroscience studies of optimism examine how strongly the brain responds to positive or negative events. What makes our study unique is that we go beyond activity levels to look at how the brain organizes thoughts about the future—its structure, not just intensity. Using advanced analysis methods, we found that optimistic individuals share a common brain pattern when imagining the future. Our findings open new doors to understanding how positivity shapes the brain—and possibly our social lives.
Perspectives
This research grew out of a long-standing curiosity I’ve had as a psychologist: Why do some people seem to “click” with others so easily, while others feel isolated, even in a crowd? When we found that optimistic people actually share a common neural framework for imagining the future, it felt like watching a metaphor come to life in the brain. I hope this article encourages people to think more deeply about how our individual ways of thinking shape the connections we form with others—and perhaps even how we might build a more understanding and emotionally connected society.
Kuniaki Yanagisawa
Kobe Daigaku
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Optimistic people are all alike: Shared neural representations supporting episodic future thinking among optimistic individuals, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2511101122.
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