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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 22, No. 10, 993-1003 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/01461672962210002
© 1996 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Distinguishing Optimism from Denial: Optimistic Beliefs Predict Attention to Health Threats

Lisa G. Aspinwall

University of Maryland, College Park

Susanne M. Brunhart

University of Maryland, College Park

Research has yielded conflicting views of the adaptiveness of optimistic beliefs in confronting negative events and information. To test whether optimism functions like denial, the authors examined the prospective relation of optimistic beliefs to attention to threatening health information presented by computer in a college student sample (N= 57). Optimistic beliefs about one's health predicted greater attention to risk information than to neutral or benefit information and greater levels of recall overall, especially when the information was self-relevant. Results concerning attention to risk information were similar, but weaker, for dispositional optimism. Implications for theoretical treatments of optimistic beliefs are discussed.


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