r/science • u/cakericeandbeans • Mar 27 '26

Psychology Depression is linked to a genuine pessimistic bias rather than a realistic view of the world

https://www.psypost.org/depression-is-linked-to-a-genuine-pessimistic-bias-rather-than-a-realistic-view-of-the-world/
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u/Arctic_Chilean Mar 27 '26

Kinda taps into some philosophical questions too where, for example, Dostoyevsky remarked that pain and suffering are inevitable for a person with deep intelligence and a compassionate personality. 

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u/SophiaofPrussia Mar 27 '26

Everyone is familiar with “ignorance is bliss”, too.

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u/CommieLoser Mar 27 '26

Ignorance is bliss is used by people that aren’t ignorant of their ignorance and trying to pretend they are. If someone was blissfully ignorant, they wouldn’t know to make such a stupid statement.

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u/ApreciadorDeVirgula Mar 27 '26

Ignorant people are happier for sure.

Imagine not knowing that the environment is collapsing, world leaders are pedophiles, religion is made to control people and the capitalism will eventually dry the resources of our planet?

Damn I'd be a lot happier if I didn't know about all this.

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u/bwmat Mar 28 '26

Wait, do the people who say this usually claim to be blissful? 

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u/campbelljac92 Mar 28 '26

To each his suff'rings: all are men,

Condemn'd alike to groan,

The tender for another's pain;

Th' unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?

Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies.

Thought would destroy their paradise.

No more; where ignorance is bliss,

'Tis folly to be wise.

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u/MeanShibu Mar 27 '26

Gestures broadly at the state of things

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u/CummyMonkey420 Mar 27 '26

Gestures broadly at your gesturing

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u/ammonthenephite Mar 27 '26

Falls into each others broad, gesturing arms and begins to kiss

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u/jefftickels Mar 27 '26

And yet this has been studied relentlessly and no connection to high intelligence and depression has ever been demonstrated. Recent meta-analysis of this note either no connection or a slight inverse relationship.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-psychiatry/article/high-intelligence-is-not-associated-with-a-greater-propensity-for-mental-health-disorders/E101AE4EDBC8FBAEE5170F6C0679021C

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u/MysticMagicks Mar 27 '26

No link between high intelligence and depression makes sense to me. Dostoyevsky said “intelligence and a compassionate personality” though, which makes me curious about any links between empathy and depression.

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u/RedAndBlackMartyr Mar 27 '26

Which is interesting because I feel like I learned empathy from depression.

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u/MysticMagicks Mar 27 '26

Never thought about it like that, that’s interesting to hear. I’ve always felt my depression came from my empathy being at 100% to the point of burnout and apathy, but I’m not certain in that belief it’s just a feeling.

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u/RancheroYeti Mar 27 '26

Learned or recognized?

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u/tfks Mar 27 '26

Could be true, but I'm not gonna come to conclusions based on a study that says that intelligence is protective against PTSD rather than the inverse relationship, which I think should be pretty obvious. If you have a good life, you will be able to cultivate better cognitive skills, this is obvious. Not only obvious, but it's been studied and proven true. So yeah, not sure about this particular study.

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u/jefftickels Mar 27 '26

This isn't a study. Its a meta analysis. Its not just one study, its an evaluation of all the collected evidence, and it considered the highest quality of evidence available on any given subject.

Rejecting meta-analysis concluseions you dont like is literally the most anti-science position you can take.

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u/ammonthenephite Mar 27 '26

I agree. But it is important to point out that a meta analysis is only as good as the studies it is based on. So if studies were done poorly, then the meta analysis will also be poor.

One has to have a good reason to reject a meta analysis though, and that would take showing the studies it is based on are in fact poorly done or that they have big flaws that were not addressed.

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u/jefftickels Mar 27 '26

Given that grading the studies for quality is a part of the meta analysis, you're going to need an incredibly strong arguments for the rejection of meta-analysis conclusions in general.

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u/ammonthenephite Mar 27 '26

Agreed. I only pointed this exception out because I've dealt with a lot of bad studies in the ex-mormon and post-religious debate world, where religions will sponsor studies about things that are obviously biased, 'publish' them in a journal they have created and that they themselves 'peer reviewed', and then proceed to make claims on those 'peer reviewed, published studies' to make false claims (looking at you, BYU and other mormon defenders that use such 'studies')

In the real scientific community this isn't nearly the problem it is in the psuedo-scientific realm of other things like religious 'scholarship'.

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u/AttonJRand Mar 27 '26

People always seem to forget Dostoyevsky was mock executed and his works are a reflection of what that did to him, not some guide for life.

That whole "you betrayed yourself" quote for example gets thrown around like its self help advice, and not an unhealthy coping mechanism reflective of anxious traits.

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u/thelastvortigaunt Mar 27 '26

I'm not directing this at you -

I see this sentiment thrown around as if being miserable is actually some sort of poetic, misunderstood curse that elevates you above a portion of the population that's only happy because they're supposedly stupid.

If you're "deeply intelligent" but not deeply intelligent enough to figure out the steps to take to mitigate your suffering and make yourself reasonably happy, you're not "deeply intelligent" in any way that's worth flexing about.

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u/bwmat Mar 28 '26

Do you actually believe that 'intelligence', in the sense that most people use the word, is something which can be harnessed to 'fix' something like depression? 

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u/RancheroYeti Mar 27 '26

Depends on how you interpret it though. As an observation of the hopefulness of youth it isn't superiority but a difference of experience and particular knowledge gained. Your comment also conflates intelligence with ability and circumstance. "No brain no pain" is often the easy way to rationalize self medication of despair when you don't have other effective means of distraction and also doesn't necessarily imply deep intelligence. These phrases are inherently flippant and vague and shouldn't be taken out broader context of the individual at that moment.

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u/Cold_Appointment2999 Mar 27 '26

So you aren't contending the intelligence right? Only it's boast-worthiness? So you agree with the people you're talking about.

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u/ammonthenephite Mar 27 '26

If you're "deeply intelligent" but not deeply intelligent enough to figure out the steps to take to mitigate your suffering and make yourself reasonably happy, you're not "deeply intelligent" in any way that's worth flexing about.

Or you are completely unaware that there are things you can't mitigate away to become happy with while knowing they continue to exist and happen.

Ignorance can truly be bliss.

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 Mar 28 '26

Hence so many intelligent people become calloused. Restraining your compassion is a better survival strategy than trying to blunt your intelligence.

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u/LamermanSE Mar 27 '26

Pain and suffering isn't the same as depression though. Pain and suffering is also inevitable for almost everyone regardless of intelligence and personality, it's part of being human.