Cnicism The Price We Pay Analysis

A person is driving and stops at a red light. Suddenly a strange man approaches the window begging for money because he had lost everything. Does the driver hand over money to the seemingly distressed stranger who needs a helping hand? Or are they being played like a violin? Did that person really lose all he had? Or are they just looking for an easy way to make money? The person drives off doubtful of the stranger’s situation believing the stranger was driven by an ulterior motive of scamming people for a living. Cynicism is not just refusing to give money to strangers. It means questioning people’s motives and morals, wondering if they are truly doing things from the goodness of their heart or simply out of their own interests. It can be

The belief and attitude of cynicism can develop in people at a young age it is not an innate point of view. In 2005, cognitive psychologists, Candace Mills and Frank Kiel at Yale University conducted a study discovering that children as young as seven refused to believe statements at face value. In the study a group of five to eleven years old were told stories that were consistent and opposite of the person’s self-interest. They were then asked to rate the credibility of the stories and judge the stories they did not believe. The children younger than seven tended to believe the stories as true. However, the seven to eleven year old’s believed the stories to be lies that were solely motivated by self-interest (American Psychological Society). Nonetheless, anyone can be cynical at any age, the study does not necessarily mean people have been distrustful of humans since the age of seven or since birth. It just shows even children can have judgement calls on what they think is true or

One must be able to balance their optimism and cynicism is the perfect way to counteract one overshadowing the other. In healthy doses and in appropriate matters, it allows people to think and be practical. It is better to be safe and doubt than to blindly trust and become unbearably naïve. Cynicism is not the total absence of hope or faith, but rather a perspective on how exactly that hope may be obtained or evaluating why you put your faith in certain people. Ultimately, the cynic is a mix of realism and skepticism. A skeptic in terms of challenging the reasons or intentions of others and a realist by trying to be objective and accepting of the nature of others and of the