Are You Tired of Feeling Cynical? Hopeful Skepticism Could Be a Way Out

单集文稿 ...

• 00:03

  For Scientific American Science quickly, this is Rachel Feltman.

• 00:06

  No one wants to be a sucker, but do most of us go too far in our efforts to avoid naivete?

• 00:13

  In other words, are we all a little overly cynical?

• 00:18

  My guest today is Jamil Zaki, a professor of psychology at Stanford University,

• 00:23

  also the author of a new book called Hope for the Surprising Science of Human Goodness.

• 00:28

  He's here today to tell us what the research says about cynicism and how we can harness the power of hope to live better,

• 00:35

  happier lives.

• 00:42

  Thanks so much for joining us to chat today.

• 00:44

  It's my pleasure.

• 00:45

  So what inspired you to write this book?

• 00:47

  I decided to write a book about cynicism because I was drowning in it.

• 00:52

  It's a little bit surprising to people

• 00:54

  because I've studied things like empathy and kindness for 20 years.

• 00:58

  So a lot of people assume

• 01:00

  that I walk around just being blissed out by how great humanity is all the time.

• 01:04

  But it turns out that like so many people, I often have trouble trusting others.

• 01:10

  I sometimes feel like maybe human beings are not that great.

• 01:14

  And especially early in the pandemic,

• 01:16

  I found myself really feeling pretty gloomy about the state of our species and the state of the world.

• 01:22

  And I thought, well, if this is happening to me and imagine how other people feel.

• 全部文稿