Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Regan, P. C.
Right arrow Articles by Kassin, S. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Regan, P. C.
Right arrow Articles by Kassin, S. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Unrealistic Optimism: Self-Enhancement or Person Positivity?

Pamela C. Regan

Albion CoUlege

Mark Snyder

University of Minnesota

Saul M. Kassin

Williams College

Researchers interested in unrealistic optimism disagree on whether the phenomenon reflects self-enhancement or person positivity. Past research in this area has used a paradigm that confounds the self/other dimension with the individual aggregate dimension, making it difficult to determine which alternative is correct. Two studies examined whether people are unrealistically optimistic only for their own futures or whether they are unrealistically optimistic for the future of any individual. Study 1 revealed that, in comparison with an aggregate of same-sex peers, participants were unrealistically optimistic for their own and a close friend's futures but not for the future of a non-self-relevant other Study 2 employed unconfounded measures and demonstrated that, in comparison with other individual social objects, participants continued to be unrealistically optimistic for their own futures. These results suggest that unrealistic optimism is a form of self-enhancement rather than person positivity bias.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 10, 1073-1082 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/01461672952110008
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Pers Soc Psychol BullHome page
J. P. Rose, Y. Endo, P. D. Windschitl, and J. Suls
Cultural Differences in Unrealistic Optimism and Pessimism: The Role of Egocentrism and Direct Versus Indirect Comparison Measures
Pers Soc Psychol Bull, September 1, 2008; 34(9): 1236 - 1248.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Pers Soc Psychol BullHome page
J. R. Chambers, P. D. Windschitl, and J. Suls
Egocentrism, Event Frequency, and Comparative Optimism: When what Happens Frequently is "More Likely to Happen to Me"
Pers Soc Psychol Bull, November 1, 2003; 29(11): 1343 - 1356.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Pers Soc Psychol BullHome page
P. H. Ditto, G. D. Munro, A. M. Apanovitch, J. A. Scepansky, and L. K. Lockhart
Spontaneous Skepticism: The Interplay of Motivation and Expectation in Responses to Favorable and Unfavorable Medical Diagnoses
Pers Soc Psychol Bull, September 1, 2003; 29(9): 1120 - 1132.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Pers Soc Psychol BullHome page
B. Thornton, F. X. Gibbons, and M. Gerrard
Risk Perception and Prototype Perception: Independent Processes Predicting Risk Behavior
Pers Soc Psychol Bull, July 1, 2002; 28(7): 986 - 999.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Pers Soc Psychol RevHome page
M. Helweg-Larsen and J. A. Shepperd
Do Moderators of the Optimistic Bias Affect Personal or Target Risk Estimates? A Review of the Literature
Personality and Social Psychology Review, February 1, 2001; 5(1): 74 - 95.
[Abstract] [PDF]