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"Is the glass half empty or half full?", and other similar expressions such as the adjectives glass-half-full or glass-half-empty, are
"Is the glass half empty or half full?", and other similar expressions such as the adjectives glass-half-full or glass-half-empty, are idioms
An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literal meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiomatic expression's meaning is different from the lit ...
which contrast an optimistic
Optimism is the attitude or mindset of expecting events to lead to particularly positive, favorable, desirable, and hopeful outcomes. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled with water to the halfway poin ...
and pessimistic outlook on a specific situation or on the world at large. "Half full" means optimistic and "half empty" means pessimistic. The origins of this idea are unclear, but it dates at least to the early 20th century. Josiah Stamp is often given credit for introducing it in a 1935 speech, but although he did help to popularize it, a variant regarding a car's gas tank occurs in print with the optimism/pessimism connotations as early as 1929, and the glass-with-water version is mentioned simply as an intellectual paradox about the quantity of water (without reference to optimism/pessimism) as early as 1908.
See also
*Cooperative principle
In social science generally and linguistics specifically, the cooperative principle describes how people achieve effective conversational communication in common social situations—that is, how listeners and speakers act cooperatively and mutual ...
* Cognitive bias in animals
Cognitive bias in animals is a pattern of deviation in judgment, whereby inferences about other animals and situations may be affected by irrelevant information or emotional states. It is sometimes said that animals create their own "subjective soc ...
* Framing effects (psychology)
* Framing (social sciences)
In the social sciences, framing comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies organize, perceive, and communicate about reality. Framing can manifest in cognition, thought or interpersonal c ...
* Less-is-better effect
The less-is-better effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to favor a lesser option when it is presented separately, but to prefer the better option when both are presented together. The term was first proposed by Christopher Hsee.
Identi ...
* List of cognitive biases
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment. They are often studied in psychology, sociology and behavioral economics.
Although the reality of most of these biases is confirmed by reproducible ...
* Silver lining (idiom)
References
Motivation English-language idioms Articles titled with a question Optimism {{Psychology-stub