I think that people vary greatly in terms of their "set point" for how much they believe people in general are benevolent. HN is filled with skeptics and criti

I think that people vary greatly in terms of their "set point" for how much they believe people in general are benevolent. HN is filled with skeptics and critics; our set point is pretty low. Most of the rest of the world considers that to be an unreasonable downer: if you go into a typical party saying "The AMA is a tax-exempt hedge fund and licensing corporation", best case you'll get smiles and nods and worst case you won't be invited back. I don't know your sister, and you can judge a lot better than I whether her beliefs in the benevolence of her profession are "reasonable". I'm saying that it's pretty common for people to hold a positive emotional view of their work in particular and the world in general, because, well, positive emotions feel more positive.