Hope

Hope is a step below confidence. It is the feeling one has where they do not expect their desired outcome to happen, but they still sincerely wish that it does. When people hope, they imagine the outcome; they plan for the outcome; but they are not confident of it.

In general, people hope when they have nothing else. Otherwise, they would be devoting their energy to some brilliant plan of action to get what they want, instead of waiting for the future to happen and finding out if it was favorable.

But because of that, hope is the single most emotionally powerful thing one can do. When you see characters hope, they are desperate. They are in a bad place and sorely need the best possible thing to happen. They may not always get the best possible result, but when something positive does happen, then the audience is overwhelmed by it. Similarly, when a character hopes and gets nothing good from it, it makes that sting even worse.

Be wary when using hope in your writing. A little bit can go a long way. Doing too much of it makes the characters powerless and thus useless. Making it negative can be a total bummer. Making it excessively positive feels like a deus ex machina. And, as with all techniques, if you don't use it very often, it doesn't get the chance to become predictable or stale.