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I'm looking for a word to describe someone that is easily persuaded to believe things that they are aware is likely to be too good to be true. Something along the lines of an optimistic cynic, perhaps? More specifically, someone who expects the worse but wants to believe in things so badly that they allow their gullible side to override their common sense.

EDIT: To clarify, this differs from A word for a worldly wise person who pretends to be naïve? in that this person isn't necessarily worldly wise and is not pretending to be naive; their gullibility arises more from desperately hoping their belief will be justified. There is no intention to deceive others into thinking that they are more gullible than they actually are.

EDIT 2: Having looked at various answers linked in the comments, further clarification is needed; the person in question is not Pollyannaish in that they are aware that what they are believing in might not be logical, but because they are hoping against hope that this is true, the end result is a sense of gullibility.

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rach oune
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    I vote to reopen. I don't see anything in the question about "pretending". There are other answers that don't require that attribute. – Canis Lupus Oct 27 '14 at 17:08
  • @CanisLupus What you said. I also just edited the question to try and clarify things a little – rach oune Oct 27 '14 at 17:10
  • Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/q/46028 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/161565 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/173783 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/181790 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/164912 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/93849 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/101533 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/173931 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/174738 – tchrist Oct 27 '14 at 17:18
  • I'll throw my thoughts down to make my point. Gambler, risk-taker, compulsive - I think these all fit. It's not a weighty question, but I think the rush to close might come from reading into the question. The identified duplicate and related questions don't fit from might point of view. But that's up to the questioner to say. – Canis Lupus Oct 27 '14 at 17:28
  • The person in this question is "disinterested," or "happy go lucky." The person in the other question is "disingenuous." They are not the same. – Tom Au Oct 27 '14 at 18:45
  • Desperate?... – ermanen Oct 27 '14 at 18:53
  • You need to explain why none of the zillions of answers already given for this kind of question fail to satisfy you. I can see no difference between many of them and yours. Right now people are just hurling random suggestions, which devolves into an ill-defined list question that can have no right answer that is not Primarily Opinion Based. You need to take a good hard look at answers like this one. – tchrist Oct 28 '14 at 00:59
  • @tchrist I think it's been explained OK: A guy has been unable to get rid of a cold when he hears about a new wonder drug. He's skeptical it'll work because he's tried everything else. But he wants to be rid of the cold so much he tries it anyways. Is he credulous, easily deceived, a Pollyanna, in denial, omniphilic, plastic, easygoing, or taking a grim view of things? (These are the top answers to the linked posts.) Incidentally, I don't read the question as being about pejorative language, despite the stigma to gullible, cynic, etc. –  Oct 28 '14 at 02:04
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    I’d say he’s credulous or a Pollyanna, yes. Or in your example case, desperate. – tchrist Oct 28 '14 at 02:08
  • @tchrist Credulous and Pollyanna have no implication of cynicism, though. Pollyanna tends toward the opposite even, as the linked answer's definition of "an excessively or blindly optimistic person" suggests. –  Oct 28 '14 at 02:45
  • I believe this question is a more appropriate duplicate (one listed by tchrist) Is there a word or expression for someone who takes an over-optimistic view of things? – Mari-Lou A Oct 28 '14 at 03:51
  • @Mari-LouA I agree that that's closer, but I think it's asking something different. That question's subject "does not see or admit" what doesn't fit his worldview. The subject in this question is aware (and perhaps publicly acknowledges) something doesn't mesh, that it's too good to be true, yet acts optimistically despite this. –  Oct 28 '14 at 04:31
  • @dingo_dan Seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses seems an accurate and "as good as it gets" description, failing that "self-denial". The latter is not mentioned in the dupe because it doesn't express over-optimism per se, but that's an appropriate answer and it fits here :) – Mari-Lou A Oct 28 '14 at 04:40
  • @Mari-LouA Rose-colored glasses also misses the initial pessimism. I think the literal (I haven't found references for an official [or dictionary] or colloquial) meaning of "cautiously optimistic" -- that is, expecting the best but doing so with reservations -- is a better fit for the given question than what's in the links. –  Oct 28 '14 at 05:14
  • @tchrist Having taken a good hard look at answers like this one, Pollyanna doesn't fit the bill because the person in question is not "unreasonably or illogically optimistic" but is hopefully believing in something in spite of logical pessimism. I will edit my question to reflect this more clearly. – rach oune Oct 28 '14 at 17:01
  • @rachoune How is believing in something in spite of logical pessimism anything but illogically optimistic? These seem exactly the same. – tchrist Oct 28 '14 at 17:38
  • @tchrist Optimism is defined as "hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something", whereas the person in question is not at all confident and their attitude of hopefulness is more of a reluctant, hoping against hope, sort of attitude. The person in question believes that something is true while still having underlying doubts. – rach oune Oct 30 '14 at 17:30

3 Answers3

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This can be seen in two ways;

First, if the person can easily identify the threat involved, and yet goes along with it for the sake of adventure or challenge, then the following may apply:

  • Adventurous
  • Daredevil
  • Audacious

But, if the person can identify the threat involved, and yet goes along with it, grabbing on a thin rope of hope that it might turn out to be true, or to find something good in the object involved, then the following may apply:

  • Opportunist
  • Optimist
Invoker
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It's not an exact match, but whereas a person who is ingenuous is naive and trusting, a person who is disingenuous is someone who puts on a false act of being naive and trusting. If you deliberately accept as true things that you know are likely to be false, you might fairly be accused of the latter.

Chris Sunami
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The word gullible is synonymous with naive. And somebody who is intentionally naive is disingenuous.

A word for intentionally naive has been asked before:

A word for a worldly wise person who pretends to be naïve?

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Ali Caglayan
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