The Evolution of Hope and Despair By Randolph

E MOTIONS can be useful only if they influence the future, so it is not surprising that they are aroused mainly by events that change our appraisals of whether we will be able to reach our goals. Events that indicate that our efforts will succeed arouse hope. Events that suggest that our efforts are futile foster despair. We experience hope and despair, not at the beginning or end, but in the midst of our long-term efforts. These efforts arise from the deep values of cultures and their individuals, so social attitudes toward hope for their success and despair at their likely failure are not taken lightly. In fact, most cultures have norms that specify the correct attitude towards hope and despair. Attempts, such as this article, to think about hope and despair outside of these norms, tend to arouse opposition. So, we will proceed slowly at first. For several reasons social ideologies are biased in favor of hope. First, and most obviously, hope can relieve suffering, so people naturally prefer it to despair, just as they prefer drugs that relieve anxiety to those that cause it. Not only do we prefer hope to despair in ourselves, we have similar strong preferences for others, as Adam Smith so astutely notes: