Picture credits to Kind and Curious on Unsplash
Original Book: Zaki, Jamil (2024): Hope for Cynics. The surprising science of human goodness. Robinson, US.
The book at a glance. I found Hope for Cynics on Adam Grant's reading list. I chose this book because I am often confronted with cynicism in my work. When supporting change in organizations, people often comment on ideas how to change things for the better with "wishful thinking" or "keep dreaming, it will never happen", "we've tried this a hundred times, it will never change". This always leaves me with a sense of helplessness, as I realize that arguing against or highlighting the positive potential will only provoke an even more cynical reaction. So I was curious to see what I could learn from the book - and to my own surprise, it was a lot! I am very grateful for Jamil’s book, that unravels greatly what cynicsm is and how it works like a vicious self-fulfilling prophecy cycle in our minds, unfortunately creating exactly what we are fearful of. A former cynic himself, he does not blame or shame cynics. Instead, in the language of surprising facts from studies, he makes us understand why cynicism may be an understandable human response to the cruelties, inequalities and injustices we see in this world, but not a very wise one. He unravels it for us as a tragic misconception of reality in our minds that harms our own well-being and, even more tragically, creates a false basis for our thinking and acting. By helping us understand the differences between optimism, cynicism, skepticism, and hope, he argues that hope based on healthy skepticism is not naive, but a much more fact-based, intelligent response to our world's problems.
What were my three most inspiring insights?
1) Cynicism is a tragic
view of life. Jamil outlines that cynicism is actually a completely understandable
response to the world of injustice and inequality in which we live. It's a form
of cultivated societal distrust and negativity that assumes the worst in
everyone. It's a kind of self-protection, of anticipating a possible negative
outcome so as not to be hurt when it happens. But this is nothing more than a
tragic mental misconception of our world, fueled by our negativity bias. Multiple
empirical evidence show that reality is different. Just take this study as an
example: Recently scientists in 26 countries asked people how they feel about
political rivals, and how they feel about them. Both, conservatives and
liberals disliked the other side. But in almost all countries people far
overestimated how much the other side disliked them. And the same seems to be
true for assuming whether the other side would support violence to advance
their own interest. Each group thought that more than 30% of the others would support
violence to advance their interests, but in fact it was only around 5 %. The same
holds true for any other kind of stereotypes, e.g. that giving poor people
social care money they will mostly use it for drugs and alcohol etc. Jamil does
a great job of bringing together an impressive array of surprising empirical
evidence. He concludes: "If these facts surprise you, it's not
surprising." He shows how cynicism has become a cultural disease, fueled
by the narratives of our mass media, which only feed the negative bias in our
minds. And this is so tragic because it creates a vicious cycle of
self-fulfilling prophecy, where thinking worse about others brings out the
worst in them.
2) The difference between hope
and optimism. Jamil makes what I think is a very useful distinction between hope and
optimism when he says: "Optimism is the belief that things 'will'
get better, whereas 'hope' is the belief that things 'could' get better.
In his sense, hope isn't just the message that we should be a little more
positive. It's based on evidence that there are good reasons and facts that the
future can be better. In this sense, any hope can be seen as the result of a
prior healthy, open skepticism. In contrast, a simple assertion of positivity
could be seen as cynicism with a positive sign - which might even provoke more
cynicism as a response.
3) What we need is healthy skepticism. I love that Jamil doesn’t
advocate for more positivity or optimism; instead, he calls for open, healthy
skepticism. Healthy skepticism encourages us to question assumptions and
examine evidence, whereas both cynicism and simple positivity are often based
on unexamined beliefs. Jamil provides numerous examples where healthy
skepticism could have led to positive change. For instance, a study among Saudi
men revealed significant misconceptions about what others believed. Just as an
example, a 2018 study found that 87% of young married Saudi men privately
supported women working outside the home. However, these men significantly
underestimated the level of support among their peers, believing that only 37%
of similar men shared this view. This misperception led them to publicly oppose
women's employment. This makes me wonder: how much progress could we achieve if
we were more skeptical about our assumptions? According to Jamil, we
significantly underestimate constantly how many people around us likely want the
same change too—if only we’d asked more skeptically for the facts.
How does the content relate to today’s times?
I believe this book could not be more relevant for our todays’ world,
facing highest levels of polarization and violent conflict in this world since
the Second World War. The book shows a lot of research suggesting that most of
our polarization seems to be ‘false’, i.e. it exists in our minds rather than in
reality. Could it be that we are fighting wars that no one really wants?
According to Jamil's research, we could indeed find more common ground on
critical issues such as social justice, peace, equality and sustainability if
we could stop our cynicism trap, which is mainly fed by the mainstream media.
He criticizes the 'attention-centred' approach of our current news, which fuels
fear and distrust. Instead, he advocates for 'asset-framing' journalism. This
type of reporting doesn't ignore harsh realities, but highlights possible
solutions, showcasing successful efforts to tackle today's problems. Jamil outlines
how he himself balances his news intake with sources such as the ‘Reasons to Be
Cheerful’ website, which focuses on stories of solutions, facts where positive
changes happened, to avoid fueling his own negativity bias. Meanwhile it has
become one of my sources as well.
How did the book change my thinking?
As I read this book, I was surprised to realize how often I respond to
cynics with cynicism: “Forget them, they'll never change”. I realized that I,
too, am trapped in a cynicism response - more than I thought and would like.
Ironically, especially toward cynics. That's why I've sometimes excluded cynics
from roles in change workshops to prevent their potential negativity from
spilling over. Now I see that excluding them isn't the answer. It's about
encouraging more constructive disagreement and embracing healthy skepticism. That's
why I meanwhile tend to include them, giving them the specific role of ‘advocatus
diaboli’, encouraging them to question ideas from a critical, factual
perspective. I have seen that this approach has a good chance of turning
cynicism into a constructive skeptical force. In addition, I now find myself
more habitually advocating for healthy skepticism by asking, "Where does
this concern come from? Is there any evidence for it? What research supports
this claim?", etc.
What did I appreciate most reading?
Hope for Cynics is a deeply researched, masterfully curated collection of stories, some familiar, some new, all told with great humility, respect and substantial factual insight. The fact that Jamil does not exclude his personal experiences and learning curve encouraged me to bring myself into the equation and question myself more honestly. The book draws on recent research from his own lab and others, providing rich perspectives while remaining easy readable and understandable. I particularly appreciated Jamil's argument for establishing trust as the default - rather than mistrust - to help us reconnect with each other. He notes that empirical evidence shows that we are actually less 'homo economicus' and more 'homo collaborates' than we think (I love that term! Thanks for that). This is very much in line with Ludger Bregman's analysis of human kindness. If we could trust more the ‘homo collaborates’ in us and others, we could come up with more decentralized shared governance and ownership models that work more effectively than centralized governance. A fact that Elinor Oystrum, the first and only female Nobel laureate in economics, has already proven. I also appreciate that Jamil emphasizes that hope doesn't mean ignoring negative emotions like anger or frustration. Instead, he points out that they are crucial for activism and change. Hope, as he defines it, is actually a combination of these emotions with a knowing about possibilities of improvement - a potent mix for social change. I fully agree with him that we need what he calls "anti-cynical leadership," especially among leaders, to prevent the cynicism trap from spiraling further downward and to establish a healthy skepticism instead.
My most inspiring quote(s)
What wisdom in this book will I use in my daily life?
I'll try to make trust my default setting and avoid the "global gossip machine" he calls our mainstream news as much as possible. I specifically avoid clicking on links to fuel sensation and the negativity bias. Instead, I started to engage with longer, well-researched articles that go deeper in their analysis and balance views. I'm now more aware of questioning the evidence behind my reactions, beliefs and thoughts. Why do I think something can or cannot happen? Since respectful disagreement seems to be the basis for overcoming polarization and division, this book has also inspired me not to rush directly to the goal of agreement or cooperation - nor to advise others to do so. Rather, to find the courage to allow respectful disagreement and, as Daniel Pink advised, to use the three magic words "tell me more" instead of "yes, but".
Who should read this book?
Anybody who tends to have thoughts like “This world/my life will never become better”, “Forget about”. Or those being confronted with such an attitude. I think it's also a very insightful book for any kind of activist on how to work wisely and constructively and how to respond to opposing views.
By-the-way: I have no paid links or referrals to or from authors I may recommend
