People usually hold quite specific views of human nature, assessing others in general as either good, honest, and trustworthy or egoistic, deceitful, and evil. But which effects do these very different views of human nature have on the lives of cynical or idealistic individuals?
While previous studies have proved that, compared to idealists, cynical individuals show a lower sense of subjective well-being, poorer physical and mental health, higher mortality, and poorer social relationships, a recently published study by Olga Stavrova and Daniel Ehlebracht deals with the question of how cynicism affects a person’s economic success. First, one might assume that persons with cynical beliefs are better protected against deception and fraud and should therefore be better off than trustful and idealistic persons. The authors argue, however, that cynics often considerably overrate the danger of becoming a victim of deceit. Consequently, they shy away from valuable opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation and miss out on achieving their goals with combined strength.
Longitudinal analyses of representative samples from the US and Germany confirm this hypothesis and show that cynical beliefs about human nature negatively affect individuals’ income and lead to flatter income development trajectories than idealistic beliefs. Apparently, for cynical individuals the costs of missing out on cooperation opportunities exceed the potential benefits of protection against presumed exploitation. Apart from that, a final cross-cultural comparison using representative survey data from 41 countries shows that the financial losses resulting from cynical beliefs are greater the more positive the social climate in a country is. In a country with a cooperative climate and low crime rates, financial losses are substantial. In countries with low helping and high crime rates, however, there is often no negative correlation to be found between cynicism and income. 
The results of the analyses imply that cynical persons generally cultivate unrealistically negative beliefs about human nature, which causes them to distrust people unnecessarily and to avoid cooperation. Because of missed opportunities for mutual help, in most socio-cultural contexts cynics have to sustain financial losses compared to idealistic persons. Following the authors, it therefore may often be financially worthwhile to abandon cynical beliefs and rather regard other people in a more favorable way.