The hope effect | Stephen Trzeciak, MD | TEDxCapeMay

Hope is often treated as a fixed feeling or personality trait, but physician-scientist Stephen Trzeciak argues that it is a measurable and trainable capacity. Drawing on decades of peer-reviewed research, the talk links hope to health, longevity, performance and resilience after adversity. It is presented as a way of thinking and acting rather than wishful thinking or blind optimism. The speaker is an intensivist and chief of medicine at Cooper University Health Care in New Jersey, whose current research focuses on how hope works and how it can be built. The talk was given at an independently organized TEDx event.

• Hope described as a measurable, trainable capacity rather than a fixed trait
• Links between hope and health, longevity, performance and resilience
• Hope framed as a way of thinking and acting, not blind optimism

Most people think of hope as a feeling or a trait—something you either have or you don’t. But three decades of peer-reviewed research point to something very different: hope is a measurable, trainable capacity that predicts health, longevity, performance, and resilience after adversity. It is not wishful thinking or blind optimism. It is a way of thinking and acting that can be strengthened in yourself and awakened in the people around you. Stephen Trzeciak, MD, is a physician-scientist and practicing intensivist who serves as the Edward D. Viner Endowed Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care and Professor and Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in southern New Jersey. A clinical researcher with 150 publications, his work has been published in JAMA, Circulation, and The New England Journal of Medicine, and has been supported by grants from the NIH and AHRQ. His research now focuses on the science of hope—how it works and how it can be built. His work has been featured on CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Freakonomics. His mission is to show—through science—how hope improves outcomes that matter. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx