logo
welcome
Guardian

Guardian

I’ll never be an optimist – but how do I resist becoming cynical?

Guardian
Summary
Nutrition label

73% Informative

Jamil Zaki’s new book, Hope for Cynics , is out now.

Zaki a professor of psychology, and director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab , paints a confronting picture of cynicism's hold on us.

In 2018 , only 32% of Americans surveyed said that “most people can be trusted”.

Jamil Zaki is a self-described “recovering cynic’s’ new book, The Hope for Cynics .

Zaki says people often retreat into cynicism because they don’t expect too much.

But over time, he says, it reaffirms our sense of passivity, and withers us from the inside out’.