![]() ![]() This cognitive bias prevents people from. Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability. ![]() Implications for health education are discussed. Studies show that most humans are disposed to unrealistic optimism. The results are explained in motivational terms. Study 2 with 120 female undergraduates from Study 1 tested the idea that people are unrealistically optimistic because they focus on factors that improve their own chances of achieving desirable outcomes and fail to realize that others may have just as many factors in their favor. The effects of event threat and question order were found to interact: event threat affected UO in the predicted way, but only when the question about own risk came first. Participants were asked to rate their own risk and that of the average student of developing the disease question order was counterbalanced. 0 Significance levels refer to a chi-square test of the hypothesis. The risk attributable to diet was stated to be either slight (low-threat condition) or great (high-threat condition). For negative events, the definitions of optimistic and pessimistic responses are reversed. This prediction was tested in a study in which students ( N = 148) were informed about a type of heart disease that could develop in later life due to inadequate diet when young. If this is so, the greater the “event threat” (i.e., the more serious the event's consequences and/or the greater the likelihood that those consequences will be experienced), the more reassurance should be required, and the greater the UO that should be observed. ![]() This may be because, fearing the event, they try to reassure themselves by distorting their reasoning to conclude that they are at comparatively little risk. Individuals typically exhibit “unrealistic optimism” (UO), the belief that they are less likely than the average person to experience a negative event. ![]()
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