Additional Resources
Big Think Collaboration
We have partnered with Big Think to produce a number of videos and online articles.
How optimistic are you? It probably depends on your age.
Why Hopefulness is a greater predictor of academic success than intelligence.
Being optimistic is good. Knowing about optimism bias is better.
Popular
Bill Clinton: Why the World is Getting Better: The Case for Optimism: The former president makes his case.
Bastille - "Pompeii" - "How am I'm gonna be an optimist about this?..."
Bright-Sided: Video of Barbara Ehrenreich at the Harvard Bookstore discussing her battle with breast cancer, her critique of the "ideology of optimism," and her book Bright-Sided (2012).
HopeMonger: Shane Lopez is in the education department at Kansas but also runs various popular efforts to reach out to a broader audience. This site contains a lot of those efforts, and even includes an iPhone App.
Hope, the Future and Flourishing, a podcast with Sean Lopez
Non-specialist article in Psychology Today on the uses and abuses of optimism and pessimism in psychology.
Oprah.com does Optimism: A popular interview with Martin Seligman and a few other psychologists.
Optimism Bias website
Optimism Bias Take 1: Tali Sharot summarizes her findings in Time magazine, 2011.
Optimism Bias Take 2: Tali Sharot summarizes her findings in an 18 minute TED talk in February 2012.
Optimism Bias Take 3: Tali Sharot summarizes her findings again in The Washington Post, December 2012.
Perils of Positive Thinking: Barbara Ehrenreich's critique of positive psychology in the pages of Time magazine, 2009.
Positive Psychology UK: A British website devoted to bringing some of the results of the positive psychology movement to the broader public.
The Will and Ways of Hope: Scott Barry Kaufman (NYU, Psychology) provides a summary of recent developments in the study of hope for the readers of Psychology Today.
Why Choose Hope?: During the depths of the financial crisis, Barbara Frederickson (UNC-Chapel Hill) offers a brief popular argument for hope in the pages of Psychology Today.
Self-Assessments
Gain Hope: Psychologist Anthony Scioli’s website containing various tests for hope as well as summaries of his books and other work, including a Rorschach inkblot test.
This article introduced the LOT-R test, the most widespread test for optimism used in psychology today. Take the LOT-R test for yourself.
Just for Fun
Worriers - "Cruel Optimist" - punk song inspired by Lauren Berlant's book Cruel Optimism (2011)
Optimism Apps: Yes, there are apps for desktop, tablet, and smartphone that help you track (and modify?) your level of optimism.