…is large. At least according to a recent paper by Graham and Mujcic (2025). The focus of the paper is on the on the long term health, emotional and economic impacts of having a hopeful attitude.
Hope has agentic properties which are relevant to people’s future outcomes. Following 25,000 randomly sampled Australian adults over a period of 14 years from 2007 to 2021 (N > 115,000), we find a strong link between hope and better contemporary and future outcomes. Individuals with high levels of hope had improved later wellbeing, education, economic and employment outcomes, perceived and objective health, and are less likely to be lonely. Hope is associated with higher resilience, ability to adapt, and internal locus of control. It also serves as a psychological buffer during bad times. Respondents with high levels of hope were less likely to be influenced by negative life events and adapted more quickly and completely after these major events.
You can read the full paper here and a Brookings summary of the paper here.
