Elites who want to ensure the status quo are well served by a population that believes things can’t get any better. Zaki: Cynicism is harmful for individuals’ overall health. Zaki: Cynicism gets treated as smart and socially savvy when it’s actually quite naive. People think, “Yeah, cynicism feels bad, but it’s the price of being right.” In fact, cynics often get things wrong. But when we lose sight of hope, cynicism drags down civic engagement.

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Persons: Jamil Zaki, “ Hope, ” Zaki, Cynics, Zaki, Martin Luther King Jr, autocrats, —, Vern Evans, it’s, cynics, It’s, preciously, We’re, I’ve, Hope, “, Jessica DuLong, ” Organizations: CNN, Stanford University, Stanford Social Neuroscience, Central Publishing, General Social Survey, Elites, Vern Evans CNN Locations: Brooklyn , New York