When Is Hope Too Much and What Do We Do About It?

Hope was the last thing left in Pandora’s box, shut in before it could fly out. According to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first female, given a jar (not a box as was mistranslated) by the gods but told never to open it. Of course–she opened it. Out into the world flew all the evils and plagues against humanity until the lid to the jar was closed and only Elpis, Hope, remained.

In later versions of the story, Pandora’s jar held blessings that should have been preserved and, thus having been opened, was lost. It brings to question, should hope be considered a blessing or a curse?

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Two Sides of Hope

According to Christianity, hope is one of a trifecta of virtues all humans should strive for, as in Hope, Faith, and Love (1 Corinthians 13; Romans 12:12, Hebrews 6:19; Proverbs 23:18). In fact, hope is mentioned no less than 129 times in the Christian Bible, 40 times in the Quran and multiple versions of hope are found in the Hindu Vedas.

Hope is lauded in romantic tales and lovelorn ballads as the ultimate measure of true love. Activists believe that hope is the driver for change. Former U.S. President Barack Obama based his presidential campaign on one word–hope.

It is a concept that has been dissected in philosophy. After all, Aristotle said that “hope was a waking dream.”

It seems pretty obvious that hope is positive. Or is it? Pandora’s myth is not the only hint that hope might have a dark side. Philosopher Sophocles believed hope only served to extend suffering, and Nietzsche agreed, referring to hope as “prolonging the torments of men.”

Buddhism believes that “ordinary hope” is about feeding cravings and fixation–a setup for being disappointed or even destroyed when what we are longing for does not happen. Buddhists see that hope and fear exist hand in hand, so to let go of hope is to let go of fear.

Hope is a thing with feathers.

The poet Emily Dickinson wrote the first thing I remember reading about hope. She wrote:

Hope is a thing with feathers / that perches in the soul / and sings the tune without words / and never stops at all.

The dictionary defines hope as:

• Looking forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence.
• To believe, to desire, to trust.
• The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

I’ve been thinking a lot about hope. Amid a pandemic where the numbers rise and fall (but mostly rise), where social injustice is grossly prevalent and where the color of my skin can still dictate how I will be treated, I want to believe not just that there is something better, but that it is possible to make it better. One of my best friends says that I am always smoking "hopium" (a term my friend likes to use). In other words, I have a constant addiction to Hope–with a capital H because that’s how much I want to believe. When everything seems dark and doomed, I reach for the "hopium," inhale and believe in miracles. I do this when people say no, when doors are shut in my face, or when the impossible looms in front of me.

Don’t get me wrong–I give up eventually, but admittedly, my hope is almost inexhaustive.

Hope Is Essential

For the most part, research affirms that I am not the only one who believes in hope or its power. Cohen-Chen (2022) found that hope was necessary for the emergence of collective action and ongoing motivations and intentions for change. Yang et al. (2022) found neural associations in our brains that associate hope with feelings of power in their study of 261 healthy adolescents. Bird (2022) established that if we cultivate our capacity for hope, we are also increasing our emotional, mental, and volitional bandwidth. This is accompanied by the ability to also manage feelings of despair and respond to crises.

False Hope

Given this plethora of research, when is hope problematic? The answer is when it is false. False hope is when our expectations are based on illusions rather than reality, goals are inappropriate, or we design poor strategies to reach goals. Musschenga (2019) stated that false hope is not only based on unrealistic perspectives but when plans are unreasonable or do not consider the environment's real limitations.

Further, the research supports a relationship between false hope and ignorance. False hope can have detrimental effects. For example, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, hydroxychloroquine experimental treatments that former President Trump touted as “phenomenal drugs” which caused shortages of a drug that is used legitimately for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, some patients died of side effects and potential treatments were overlooked.

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Buddhist author Pema Chodron cautioned that

as long as we’re addicted to hope, we feel that we can tone our experience down to liven it up or change it somehow and we continue to suffer.

For instance, we can suffer too long in relationships we should end, jobs we aren’t passionate about and obligations that don’t give us any fulfillment just because we hope whatever it is can change even though we have empirical evidence that it won't.

Hope Is a Superpower

So, where does this leave us on the hope meter? For the most part, hope is a superpower if we remain rooted in reality. Snyder (2020) developed the “hope theory,” which posits that hope is a “positive motivational state” that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful agency and pathways” and “a cognitive set that is based on a reciprocally derived sense of successful agency.” He and his colleagues found that the higher the hope, the better outcomes in academics, athletics, physical health, psychological adjustment, and psychotherapy.

It seems like the best course of action is hope, but hope is anchored in context, carried out through intention, and practiced with moderation. And true, from time to time, we will need to put down the "hopium" and just live in the moment. Cole Arthur Riley urged us to stay in the present because when we anticipate loss, it “changes what we hope for.” Instead, let’s wield hope as it was meant to be–with joy, abundance, and optimism.