Healthy, balanced optimism helps build a sense of contentment. People with a confident and optimistic outlook often make great friends. Fault finding in optimists is less common, and they tend to carry a softness about them as they sustain hope and find the good in what's around them. Optimistic individuals maintain a healthy sense of hope and confidence in their own and other people's ability to master what it takes to solve problems and move forward. Acknowledging their limits and tuning in to the reality of a situation, people with an optimistic outlook intervene only when absolutely necessary. People who communicate with overall optimism are often sought after in schools, workplaces and social groups. Optimism is a thinking style that can be developed, even in the most resistant pessimist. Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, notes in Hardwiring Happiness that people naturally emphasise negative things they experience. Optimists also show lower stress levels with higher motivation and resilience.