OptimismWint, Htut Khine, Natalie and Eleanor

Why Optimism?

● Benefits to a person-Good Trait?o How to improve oneself

● How mental attitude affects societyo What changes in society if more Optimists?o Good or Bad thing for society?

● Testing our own personal hypotheseso Put them on the line!

Goals

● Defining Optimismo Finding questions that relate

● Calculating Optimism score from ?’s● What affects optimism? (Question 1)● What optimism effects? (Question 2)

Optimism Definition

● Hopefulness or positivity about the future, our role in society and outcomes

Data sets● Didn’t have a data set that directly measured optimism.● PEW

o Used to calculate optimism scoreo Explanatory and response variables for optimism

● Gallup Poll○ Collected National data about how optimistic people

are about their city○ Used to validate the results of our own optimism

calculation

Cleaning the Data

● Change to CSV format● Removing unnecessary columns● Convert optimism questions to numerics● Change “Don’t know/Refused” to “NA”

o Don’t know is ambiguous● Calculating Optimism score● Change states to regions - Gallup Poll

Optimism Score

● Chose 23 questions from the Pew study.● Weighted each question by relevance to

optimism● Gallup Poll, Distribution!

Optimism Distributions

Hypotheses - Question 1

● Explanatory variables for Optimismo Demographics (Age, Gender, etc.)o Least likely to be affected by optimism

No crossover● See if certain demographics lead to higher optimism

o Groups with societal advantages would be more optimistic (Caucasian, Upper Class, Christians)

o Women more optimist Assumption that women are more positive

Findings and Analysis

● Gender, Race, Religion

Findings and Analysis-Income

Findings and Analysis-Age

Hypotheses-Question 2

● Evolved through analysis of Question 1● How does mental attitude affect views on

society?o Optimism is good for society

Subjectiveo Optimists would be open to change in

society View change as good thing

Findings and Analysis-Question 2

https://hwin16.shinyapps.io/OptimismApp/

Complications

● Lacked details in demographicso “Not employed”

● Long Questionnaire and Phone Interviewo Not accurate

● Gallup Pollo City Optimism-Not perfect comparison

● Wider spread of demographicso Many Southern, Christians, White

Future Analysis/Application

● Data set not specifically about optimismo Make specific poll for optimismo Accurate score

● Investigate the role Realism● More effectively promote social change

o Focus on Pessimists● Use in therapy

o More effectively treatmentso Understand what causes poor mental attitude

Conclusions

● Most people are optimistic!● Unchangeable demographics do not

affect optimism● Other demographics have a logical trend● Optimists are open to societal changes

Class Optimism!

Class Minimum:Class Maximum:Class Mode:Class Average (mean):

Class Optimism!

Class Minimum: 1Class Maximum:Class Mode:Class Average (mean):

Class Optimism!

Class Minimum: 1Class Maximum: 9Class Mode:Class Average (mean):

Class Optimism!

Class Minimum: 1Class Maximum: 9Class Mode: 8Class Average (mean):

Class Optimism!

Class Minimum: 1Class Maximum: 9Class Mode: 8Class Average (mean): 6.36

Questions?

Link to our website:http://people.cornellcollege.edu/whnin15/website