Giving Compass' Take:

• Brookings highlights several studies showing how hope and optimism significantly and positively affects young adults in low-income areas. 

• What can this research tell us about young adults in America? How can donors help support efforts that will provide hope to youth?

• Here's how music helps spread the message of hope. 

Does hope matter? While we know that individuals and families typically make key decisions based on a desire to achieve a result, we know very little about the role of hope and optimism in determining future behavior or about the links between these beliefs, behaviors, and economic outcomes.

It seems intuitive that attitudes and beliefs determine many behaviors and future choices such as education, occupation, or investments. These attitudes and beliefs also interact with objective factors such as capability and talent, leading to virtuous—or vicious—circles. Yet it is also possible that optimists mis-predict their futures, resulting in frustration and unhappiness in the long run.

Using a novel survey of poor and near poor urban young adults in Peru, Julia Ruiz-Pozuelo and I attempt to shed light on these questions about hope. We use data on respondent’s aspirations for future education, past shocks and experiences, past and present life satisfaction, as well as other indicators (i.e., self-efficacy, discount rates/impatience, proclivity to risky behaviors) to understand the determinants of optimism. We differentiate between those that relate to objective circumstances (such as higher income or better health) and those that stem from innate character traits and resilience.

Read more about the positive effects of hope by Carol Graham at Brookings.