are more likcely to happen to them than to others (Weinstein, 1980, p. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806. Weinstein Department of Human Ecology and Social Sciences Cook College, Rutgers The State University Two studies investigated the tendency of people to be unrealistically optimistic about future life events. Weinstein offered the definition of unrealistic optimism bias as People believe. (1980) Unrealistic Optimism about Future Life Events. comparison group (Weinstein, 1980 Weinstein & Lachendro, 1982). 5, 806-820 Unrealistic Optimism About Future Life Events Neil D. optimistic estimates that one will get a good first job (Weinstein 1980), avoid an. UO is one that we cannot beat simply by asking people to be rational and Government will need to take forceful action, if they wish to curb deaths from COVID-19. part of Weinsteins original account of unrealistic optimism emphasized the egocentric. A Selective Hypothesis Testing Account of Unrealistic Optimism. Governments are not going to get people who are in the grips of UO about COVID-19, thinking it will not happen to them, to practice social distancing / isolation, unless governments enforce it. There is no good evidence that Unrealistic Optimism can be reduced giving information to people to show that their belief is irrational does not work, nor does giving them information that they may be ‘somewhat wrong’ (although the latter may more effective in providing a slight shift Jefferson et al., (2017)). positive events are more likely to happen to them than to others (Weinstein, 1980, p.
others to be victims of misfortune, not themselves (Weinstein, 1980, p. The phenomenon has been replicated in various populations and with various stimuli.Įxperiments have taken place to see how we can correct this irrational thinking in people. media intervention program, unrealistic optimism bias. Purpose Unrealistic optimism is a well-documented psychological phenomenon. What we are seeing at the moment, people ignoring government advice on social distancing and going about their normal day as if all is well, is the result of what is known in the behavioural science literature as ‘Unrealistic Optimism’ (first identified by a US psychologist, Neil Weinstein in the 1980), Unrealistic Optimism or Optimistic Bias is the observation that people are hard- wired to irrationally believe that negative events (ranging from catching a cold, to failing an exam to getting divorced, to falling off your bike) are more likely to happen to the ‘average other person’ than themselves. In lay terms, optimistic bias (Weinstein, 1980) is the belief that bad things happen to other people. Thank you for an insightful piece of writing.
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