Pollyanna
noun

- a person who is constantly or excessively optimistic

- a person characterized by irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything

Collins Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

(Note: Most, but not all dictionaries capitalise Pollyanna)

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WORD ORIGIN

This phrase is a reference to Pollyanna Whittier, child heroine of U.S. novelist Eleanor Hodgman Porter’s “Pollyanna” (1913) and “Pollyanna Grows Up” (1915), who was noted for keeping her chin up and finding cause for gladness in the most difficult situations.

Pollyanna is not the only literary character to have such a philosophy named after her. The philosopher and tutor in Voltaire’s Candide (1759) is an eternal optimist named Dr. Pangloss. One of his most famous lines in the book is: “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” This gave English the adjective “Panglossian”.

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THE POLLYANNA PRINCIPLE

The Pollyanna principle was described by Margaret Matlin and David Stang in 1978 using the archetype of Pollyanna more specifically as a psychological principle which portrays the positive bias people have when thinking of the past.

According to the Pollyanna principle, the brain processes information that is pleasing and agreeable in a more precise and exact manner as compared to unpleasant information. We actually tend to remember past experiences as more rosy than they actually occurred.

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SYNONYMS

- a state of having positive beliefs or happy thoughts:

absence of anxiety, absence of worry, Arcadia, ardour, beatitude, bed of roses, beer and skittles, being full of the joys of spring, bliss, blissfulness, blitheness, blithesomeness, bonhomie, bright outlook, bubbliness, carefreeness, carousing, cheerfulness, cloud nine, delectation, delight, divine rapture, ecstasy, Eden, effervescence, elan, elatedness, elation, Elysium, enjoying, esprit, euphoria, exhilaration, exuberance, exultation, frivolity, frivolousness, frolicking, fun and games, gaiety, glee, gleefulness, good cheer, good humour, good spirits, gusto, halcyon days, happiness, heaven, heaven on earth, hilarity, intoxication, jocularity, joie de vivre, jollification, jolliness, jollity, joviality, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, joys of spring, knees-up, levity, light-heartedness, looking on bright side, love of life, merriment, merry-making, nirvana, Panglossian, playfulness, POLLYANNAISM, positive attitude, positiveness, positivity, psychological wellbeing, rapture, rejoicing, revelling, revelry, rhapsodies, rose-colored glasses, rosy outlook, seventh heaven, Shangri-La, silver lining, sprightliness, stars in one’s eyes, sunshine and lollipops, sunshine and rainbows, sweetness and light, top of the world, transports of delight, Utopia, warm fuzzies, well-being, whoopee, wingding, zest, zest for life, zestfulness

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“I’m no POLLYANNA, but I do think some good will come out of this.”

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