Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness

“argues successfully that hope is rational and can be cultivated as a skill, instead of being purely emotional and naive.”

Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness shows that there is indeed hope for cynics and describes how to find it.

Ironically, most hardcore cynics won’t read the book, based on the author’s definition of the cynic personality type and worldview, so in that respect it misses the mark.

It will resonate with many others, though, who feel themselves—and society—sinking into destructive cynicism. For them, the author’s analytical and compassionate text will not only provide enlightenment but also ways to adjust their attitudes to escape the counterproductive despair and negative expectations that constitute a cynical mindset.

The book’s key point comes in the introduction: “Cynicism and skepticism are often confused for each other, but they couldn’t be more different. Cynicism is a lack of faith in people; skepticism is a lack of faith in our assumptions. Cynics imagine humanity is awful; skeptics gather information about who they can trust.”

Everything else in the book follows from that. The narrative is framed around the author’s relationship with Emile Bruneau, a fellow professor of psychology, who, despite rough beginnings, became “a hopeful skeptic, combining his love of humanity with a precise, curious mind.” He emerged as a leader in this area of behavioral and social science and inspired the author to follow in his footsteps.

Thus, in Hope for Cynics the author explores the origin and nature of cynicism, and how it has become epidemic in modern times. Concurrently, he defines and explains the psychological and behavioral tools made available through skepticism.

Then he supports his points with true story after true story about cynics who approached bad situations with a skeptical mind instead of a mistrustful one, and how their negative expectations took surprisingly positive turns. These episodes validate the results found in clinical work.

Those clinical studies and trials are the science referred to in the book’s subtitle, and what make the book more than wishful thinking and guru-inspired self-help. There are so many studies, in fact, that they create a formatting problem for the volume.

Because the author takes an academic approach to his topic, it would be conventional to cite the studies supporting his examples when he presents them, as is commonly done in textbooks and journals. However, the number of citations would render the prose unreadable. So he packs his sources into an appendix for readers to examine if they choose.

Lots of readers won’t choose, since it’s heavy sledding to work through. Easier to accept that the author did his homework and can substantiate his assertions. His transparency about how he came to his conclusions makes the content believable. Only a die-hard cynic would tackle the reference list to formulate a dispute. Perhaps someone will or has already done so.

Regardless, this packaging isolates the science from the narrative, so that it reads like a personal transformative journey. The author interweaves his own struggles between the real-life examples, academic discussion, and profile of Emile, exemplifying how one’s outlook can evolve from emotion-driven cynicism to rationally driven skepticism.

Overall the content is lucid and upbeat . . . yet an underlying dissonance remains. First, the separation of scientific and personal material; second, a political undertone that seeps in despite carefully neutral language. Readers who do not share the author’s political alignment may sense this, or even find it overt, and experience the very antipathy and alienation the author seeks to eliminate.

Despite this, the book argues successfully that hope is rational and can be cultivated as a skill, instead of being purely emotional and naive. Another appendix, titled, “A Practical Guide to Hopeful Skepticism,” offers exercises in how to start changing one’s mind and improving the quality of our own and others’ lives. That alone makes the book worth reading.