Positive thinking and optimism are frequently connected with success in life, good health, and longevity; but, a new study has suggested that it can also lead to poor decision-making, with particularly serious implications for people’s financial wellbeing.

In the study published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the researchers from the UK-based University of Bath showed that excessive optimism is associated with lower cognitive skills such as verbal fluency, fluid reasoning, numerical reasoning, and memory.