“It’s important to distinguish between optimism and hope,” Zaki told me. “If I have strong expectations that everything will be great and then reality is less well, then I might even become cynical in the future,” Zaki explained. Hopeful skepticism isn’t about handing your bank info to a fake prince promising millions. “A great step toward hopeful skepticism is to fact-check our cynicism,” Zaki said. Hopeful skepticism doesn’t deny that betrayal happens or that evil exists.