For many decades, a widely held and taught hypothesis suggested that sadder people are more realistic about what they can and cannot control than their happy counterparts. Unsurprisingly, this hypothesis not only seeped into psychology textbooks, but also influenced leadership and management theories. Recently this hypothesis has been reversed and the implications may be significant.
The saddest but wisest hypothesis
In the late 1970s, Lauren Alloy and Lyn Abramson conducted four experiments with 144 college students classified as depressed or non-depressed. Over the course of their experiments, they found that the depressed group had a more accurate or realistic sense of their ability to control situations than the non-depressed group. The experiments gave rise to what Alloy and Abramson would eventually describe as “depressive realism,” or the hypothesis that depressed people make more realistic inferences than nondepressed people. But “sadder but wiser” hypothesis is true in all contexts and demographics?
Debunking depressive realism
in a studio 2022, Amelia S. Dev and colleagues attempted to recreate Alloy and Abramson’s 1979 study. This time, they were based on a larger sample and included a group of Amazon MTurk workers, as well as a group of college students. Both groups were asked to complete a classic contingency task and an overconfidence task and were tested for both. depression Y anxiety. The researchers then measured the participants’ perceived control while completing the tasks.
In stark contrast to Alloy and Abramson, Dev and colleagues found no evidence that depressive symptoms were related to illusory control or overconfidence. As they concluded, “The ‘sadder but wiser’ hypothesis holds that depression improves accuracy in judgment… Our results contradict these claims. We do not find that depressive symptoms consistently correlate with self-control ratings. The implication is that errors in appraisal of personal control or overconfidence do not appear to be an integral part of depression.”
Although the study by Dev et al. is not the first attempt to question Alloy and Abramson’s hypothesis (see Moore and Fresco’s 2012 literature review for an overview of studies that have previously tested the hypothesis), it is arguably one of the most definitive refutations to date. The Dev et al study may also have far-reaching implications for how we think about depression, delirium, and depression. confidenceeven in the workplace.
The Rise of the Happy Realist
For a long time it was assumed that the flip side of “sadder but wiser” was “happier but delusional.” In short, if sadder or depressed people have a more realistic sense of what they can and can’t control, it seems that happier people, who assume they can control various outcomes, are simply deluding themselves a bit. And this is where the “sadder but wiser” thesis has been especially damaging in the context of the workplace.
Through the lens of the “sadder but wiser” paradigm, it’s easy to assume that there are essentially two types of employees: those who are depressed but realistic about what they can control at work, and those who are happy but somewhat deluded. about your work. conditions. In reality, the world of work is much more complex, and this is where the “happy realist” comes in.
In the last two decades, a growing body of research has been generated on happiness in the workplace. The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that happy employees are more productive, less likely to quit, and also less likely to engage in quiet quit smoking. However, much of this research has failed to delve into who these employees really are, leaving the impression that happy employees are simply those who love their jobs and their organizations without hesitation. In fact, happy employees are often very realistic, possibly even more realistic than their sad counterparts.
As an example, consider the fact that happy workers are often those who are willing to take on ever-increasing challenges at work. In this sense, the happiest employees are not those who are simply “delighted,” or deluded, as the “sadder but wiser” hypothesis once seemed to imply. Rather, they are those employees who are most likely to engage in a determined fight. Put another way, they are happy and realistic enough to appreciate that job satisfaction ultimately depends on striving to pursue, not avoid, the biggest challenges in life and work.
