What :

Outlook or  attitude are almost synonymous  is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event. It is  the way that a person thinks about particular object visible or invisible. A habitual or characteristic mental state  that determines how you will interpret and respond to any forthcoming situations or the one already faced.

Five Flavours

There may be five possible scales of your outlook or attitude towards any such state of mind  as stated. These are:

1. Idealism — "Everything will work out brilliantly."
2. Optimism — "Things are likely to have positive results."
3. Realism — "Things just are what they are."
4. Pessimism — "Things are likely to have negative results."
5. Cynicism — "Everything is bad, doomed, and untrustworthy."

Types of Reaction Shown:

Imagine you're facing a life-threatening situation. Put yourself on the Titanic. You've just hit an iceberg and your ship has gone down. Now you find yourself in icy waters with no more rescue boats in the middle of a dark, empty Atlantic ocean.

Consider how each of the attitudes would face the problem:

• The optimist would take serious stock of his situation, and factor in all of the negatives he faces. But his optimism would give him hope — that if he holds out long enough, he will survive. The optimist will fight the hardest for his own survival, yet still deal with the full severity of the situation.
• The idealist would assume that everything was going to be okay. As a result, he might ignore warning signs like the coldness of the water, hypothermia, the subtle nuances of action that might save his life. He is actually less likely to work as hard as needed to save himself.
• The realist would look at the "reality" of the situation. Since it would be statistically unlikely for a boat to find and save him, his presumption (and rightly so) would be that he's in a dire situation with little hope for survival.
• The pessimist would assume the worst, but would fight to stay alive. But by assuming the worst, he'd mentally compound every negative thing that happened — it's all affirming his belief that he's unlikely to survive. He'd still have hope, but the despair would give the elements the upper hand.
• The cynic would give up hope, and expect death. As a result, he'd feel the cold of the water much more immediately, and would succumb the quickest.

Conclusion:

OBVIOUSLY, THIS IS AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION. NOT ALL OPTIMISTS WOULD SURVIVE, AND NOT ALL CYNICS WOULD DIE. AND, SURE, IT WOULD DEPEND ON INDIVIDUAL STRENGTH, ATHLETIC ABILITY, HEALTH, THE LUCK OF THEIR PARTICULAR SITUATION, ETC.BUT THE PRINCIPLES ARE VALID.

THE TENDENCY TOWARD CERTAIN TYPES OF REACTIONS IS REAL. ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL, THE OPTIMIST WILL BE MOST LIKELY TO SURVIVE A LIFE-THREATENING SITUATION.