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Contrary to popular belief, making a person feel more optimistic about their job doesn't boost their productivity as much as we might think.

A study has found that people perform, on average, equally well in a task regardless of how positive or negative they feel about it.

But the research discovered that many of us place much more importance on optimism in such situations than we should.

A study asked participants to complete tasks before giving part of the group feedback designed to make them feel more optimistic. It found that people perform, on average, equally well in a task regardless of how positive or negative they feel about it, but many of us place more importance on optimism than we should

In her study, '(Too) Optimistic About Optimism: The Belief that Optimism Improves Performance' Elizabeth Tenney, assistant professor of management at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business wanted to see how much weight we put on positive thinking and performance.

During one experiment, a group known as 'task completers' was put through a series of training exercises before being asked to solve a maths puzzle.

Before completing the puzzle, each participant was given false feedback that either suggested they would do well at the task, or perform poorly - based on how well they had fared during the training exercises. 

The positive feedback was given to make the participants more optimistic about the task. 

A separate group of 'predictor' participants was then asked to estimate how well they thought each member of the first group would perform. 

Despite the fact each of the first group were equally capable of completing the task, the predictors said they expected the 'optimistic' group to perform significantly better.

In reality, there was little that separated the performance of the optimistic and pessimistic groups.

A second experiment asked the task group to complete a 'Where's Waldo?' puzzle. 

The predictors expected the optimistic group to be 33 per cent better at the task than the other group, but while members of the optimistic group persisted for around 20 per cent longer, the success rate was only 5 per cent higher. 

Following each task the completers rated how well they thought they had done.  

The researchers then specifically wanted to look at how much people overrate the importance of optimism. 

They asked participants to study the profiles of 99 completers - which each contained various information about their competency, test performance as well as their level of optimism - and rate their how well they think they did. 

Following the first group's tests, a second group was then asked to predict how well the intial group would perform. They said they expected the 'optimistic' group to perform significantly better - despite the fact there was little difference between the actual performances

In every case, the participants gave accurate and equal weight to competency and performance, but placed more weight on optimism and those who were considered more optimistic. 

The researchers concluded that people naturally placed an importance on optimism that the test results didn't warrant. 

'In summary, people prescribe optimism when they believe it has the opportunity to improve the chance of success - unfortunately, people may be overly optimistic about just how much optimism can do' concluded the paper.  

The findings are published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology