Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachment
Abstract Optimism bias refers to the tendency to display unjustified high/low expectations of future positive/negative events. This study asked 202 participants to estimate the likelihood of 96 different events. We investigated optimism biases for both oneself and the general population, and how the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22031-4 |
| _version_ | 1811233595792031744 |
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| author | Mihai Dricu Dominik A. Moser Tatjana Aue |
| author_facet | Mihai Dricu Dominik A. Moser Tatjana Aue |
| author_sort | Mihai Dricu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Optimism bias refers to the tendency to display unjustified high/low expectations of future positive/negative events. This study asked 202 participants to estimate the likelihood of 96 different events. We investigated optimism biases for both oneself and the general population, and how these biases are influenced by gender, valence of the event, sociality of the event, as well as attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. We found that sociality interacted with gender, with the difference in optimism bias for social vs. alone events being larger among women than among men. Attachment anxiety mainly reduced the optimism bias among men deliberating over future alone situations, while attachment avoidance primarily reduced optimism bias among female respondents deliberating over future social interactions. These results may have implications for the well-being and motivation of differently attached men and women and ultimately inspire psychotherapy interventions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:23:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b888e3c80655477ab586564430b01914 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:23:41Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-b888e3c80655477ab586564430b019142022-12-22T03:35:18ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-11-0112111110.1038/s41598-022-22031-4Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachmentMihai Dricu0Dominik A. Moser1Tatjana Aue2Institute of Psychology, University of BernInstitute of Psychology, University of BernInstitute of Psychology, University of BernAbstract Optimism bias refers to the tendency to display unjustified high/low expectations of future positive/negative events. This study asked 202 participants to estimate the likelihood of 96 different events. We investigated optimism biases for both oneself and the general population, and how these biases are influenced by gender, valence of the event, sociality of the event, as well as attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. We found that sociality interacted with gender, with the difference in optimism bias for social vs. alone events being larger among women than among men. Attachment anxiety mainly reduced the optimism bias among men deliberating over future alone situations, while attachment avoidance primarily reduced optimism bias among female respondents deliberating over future social interactions. These results may have implications for the well-being and motivation of differently attached men and women and ultimately inspire psychotherapy interventions.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22031-4 |
| spellingShingle | Mihai Dricu Dominik A. Moser Tatjana Aue Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachment Scientific Reports |
| title | Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachment |
| title_full | Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachment |
| title_fullStr | Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachment |
| title_short | Optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence, gender, sociality, and insecure attachment |
| title_sort | optimism bias and its relation to scenario valence gender sociality and insecure attachment |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22031-4 |
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