Being cynical isn’t good for your mental health. Not only that, research confirms it’s not smart to be cynical.
Cynical people have a negative view of human nature, and tend to believe that self-interest is the main driver of human behaviour.
It’s easy to find examples of cynicism in everyday life. For example, someone might say that all politicians are the same, that they are all corrupt and only out for themselves.
Some people are routinely cynical when it comes to acts of kindness, believing that kindness is only a facade and that even good deeds are invariably rooted in selfishness.
A jaded friend might respond to your excitement about a new partner by muttering, “Sure, enjoy it while it lasts”.
A disillusioned worker might scoff at their company’s expressions of gratitude and appreciation, thinking: yeah right, they’re only interested in profits.
The American comedian Stephen Colbert once said that cynicism ‘masquerades as wisdom, but it is the furthest thing from it.’
Recent research suggests that Colbert is right. Interestingly, the study, which involved 200,000 people across 30 countries, found that people tend to think of cynics as smart, competent people. For example, participants thought that cynics were likely to do better on cognitive tasks.
In reality, the study found cynical people tend to do worse when it came to cognitive ability and academic competency. In fact, cynics were found to be less educated in 29 out of 30 countries; less literate in 28 out of 30 countries; less numerate in 29 out of 30 countries; and less computer-literate in 23 out of 26 countries.
So why do people tend to think cynical people are smarter than they are? The authors note there are many smart and witty cynics in fiction and movies, and that this might fuel what they call the ‘cynical genius illusion’.
In early literature, cynicism was associated with a ‘clear and realistic, rather than dark and pessimistic, view of reality’. Cynicism was often depicted as ‘a sign of intelligence and wit’ among 19th and 20th century writers. George Bernard Shaw referred to cynicism as a ‘power of accurate observation’, while the British philosopher John Stuart Mill noticed that ‘it is thought essential to a man who has any knowledge of the world to have an extremely bad opinion of it.’
Similarly, they point to characters such as Sherlock Holmes or Frank Underwood, the Machiavellian politician in the House of Cards TV series, and how cynical people are often painted as ‘the most experienced, insightful, competent, and knowledgeable ones’.
Another important factor also explains why we may think that cynicism is smarter than it really is. I’ve often written about our in-built negativity bias, and the fact that bad is stronger than good (that’s why, for example, if one person pays us a compliment and someone else passes a critical comment, we’re likely to dwell on the latter and pay little heed to the former).
The authors note that pain associated with a negative outcome (for example, betrayed trust) is stronger than the pleasure associated with a positive outcome (say, rewarded trust). Thus, people may be more aware of the downsides of gullibility, and of the risks we face when we are too trusting. Consequently, the cynic may be seen as a hard-headed realist, while a hopeful optimist may be dismissed as a naive idealist.
It’s worth remembering, then, that the cynical world-view is not nearly as wise as it might seem. Take the aforementioned example I gave regarding politicians being “all the same”. Is this really true? Is Joe Biden no different to Donald Trump? Is Boris Johnson just like the man who is likely to be the UK’s next prime minister, Labour’s Keir Starmer? Is Vladimir Putin the same as Micheal Martin?
This point aside, it’s worth dwelling on the downsides of a cynical outlook. As the researchers point out, a cynical view of human nature ‘has been associated with bad health outcomes and increased mortality risks, lower psychological well-being, diminished self-esteem, and reduced economic well-being’.
In short, there’s nothing positive about cynicism. It’s not smart, and it’s not good for you.
(First published in Southern Star on 20/6/2024).