Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and the Cheerfulness Facet (E6)

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is the story of a man shipwrecked alone on a deserted island for nearly three decades, and much of its staying power comes from how Crusoe keeps himself sane. Stripped of everything and everyone, he makes a deliberate accounting of his situation, listing the evils against the mercies, and chooses where to put his attention. He describes the turn plainly. In Robinson Crusoe he writes, "I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted." That habit of tilting toward the good is, in the Big Five, one facet.

Tilting toward the good is the Cheerfulness facet

That facet is Cheerfulness (E6), under Extraversion, your baseline tendency toward good spirits, optimism, and joy rather than a flatter or gloomier default. A high scorer bounces back and finds the bright thread easily; a low scorer runs cooler and has to work harder for lightness. Crusoe, alone in the worst circumstances imaginable, models E6 as something you can practice, an act of will to weigh the mercies against the miseries. Defoe's quiet lesson is that cheerfulness is partly a discipline of attention rather than only a lucky temperament.

The dark side Crusoe refuses to dwell on shades toward Depression (N3), the pull toward low mood and hopelessness, which his marooning could easily have triggered. Cheerfulness and low mood are not simple opposites, since a person can be prone to gloom and still cultivate bright habits, which is essentially what Crusoe does. His accounting is a homemade version of what therapists now teach, deliberately naming the good to keep the dark from swallowing everything. For a lower-E6 reader the book is an oddly practical companion, since it shows the tilt toward the good as a thing you build rather than a thing you are born with.

For a reader placing themselves, your E6 is a fair read on how easily good spirits come to you and how quickly you find the bright side when things go wrong. High on it and Crusoe is confirming an instinct you already trust, with the reminder that even sunny natures need something real to stand on. Low on it and Robinson Crusoe is a hopeful case that the bright side can be chosen and practiced, one honest accounting at a time. Where you sit on Cheerfulness tells you where your mood tends to rest, and we take the facet apart in Cheerfulness (E6).

Read the book: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

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