First, two of the eight questions behaved differently from the other six in one slice of the analysis. We weren’t sure what this meant, as it didn’t show up anywhere else. But later on, we ran our factor analysis, and then, all at once, there it was: a second factor appeared. It was made up of these two questions:

1. I am really enthusiastic about the mission of my company.

1. I have great confidence in my company’s future.

So we began thinking of these as the “company” factor, and the remaining six questions as the “team” factor—and these two factors together as “engagement.

Indeed, when a third set of potential buyers asked “What problems does it have?,” potential sellers were much more forthcoming. Even though positive and negative assumption questions both directly asked about problems, negative assumption questions led sellers to be 50 percent more likely to fess up that problems could exist.

Questions not only solicit information, they reveal it. They reveal information about our knowledge, our assumptions, and even how assertive we’re going to be.

A pessimistic explanatory style—the habit of believing that “it’s my fault, it’s going to last forever, and it’s going to undermine everything I do”—is debilitating, Seligman found. It can diminish performance, trigger depression, and “turn setbacks into disasters.

In other words, the salespeople with an optimistic explanatory style—who saw rejections as temporary rather than permanent, specific rather than universal, and external rather than personal—sold more insurance and survived in their jobs much longer.

For more information, visit Seligman’s website (http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx), and take his Optimism Test to get a sense of your current style. And check out his classic book, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life.