Cynicism is on the rise. Should that come as any surprise given today’s divisive global conflicts and our fraught political landscape? Even the weather seems like it’s out to get us. Americans are experiencing a “trust recession,” social scientist Jamil Zaki said in his new book, “Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness.
” Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. Americans’ belief that most people can be trusted dropped from nearly half in 1973 to about one-third in 2018, according to the General Social Survey. But research reveals this mistrust as off base.
In fact, people are often better than we expect. As it turns out, cynics are often all wrong. Based on a growing science, Zaki calls on people to replace cynicism with “hopeful skepticism” that helps to see the world more clearly and activates them to create a better future by leveraging “the surprising wisdom of hope.
” Cynicism leads to apathy and inaction. But people can counteract it by questioning their assumptions, maintaining faith in others, gossiping about goodness and embracing the hope that drives civic engagement and social progress. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
CNN: We live in trying times full of violence, strife and cruelty. How could we be anything but cynical? Jamil Zaki: That’s a fair question. I, myself, struggle with cynicism.
It’s an understandable response to.
