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Higgins, Nancy; Amand, Michelle D. St; Poole, Gary

doi:10.1023/a:1006865832297

Cited by 32 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Although case and hospitalisation numbers had increased exponentially, a large majority of participants knew no one in their social networks (family, friends or colleagues), who had contracted the disease [ 118 ]. As is the case for chronic disease, experience, either direct or indirect, has been found to mitigate levels of unrealistic optimism [ 23 , 34 , 45 ]. Without such direct experience, it would follow that people may have been increasingly more unrealistically optimistic for themselves, believing high levels of infection concerned others, those outside their immediate social group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lack of control [ 34 , 43 , 132 ], fear [ 23 ] and uncertainty [ 67 ] have been observed to contribute to unrealistic optimism, and may even be healthy in an uncertain situation [ 35 , 40 , 124 ], as a direct, self-regulatory response to adversity, fear and a need for control [ 133 , 134 , 135 ]. Fear and anxiety towards COVID-19 have been strongly associated with comparative unrealistic optimism [ 114 , 136 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As perceived risk increases, so too does the motivation to adopt precautionary measures [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. However, studies of chronic health threats repeatedly reveal that people are likely to demonstrate optimism bias, also called unrealistic optimism, when faced with a health threat, i.e., people tend to underestimate their likelihood of experiencing a negative event, notably when compared with someone else [ 10 , 22 , 34 , 35 ]. For instance, Weinstein [ 23 ] discovered that when college students were asked to estimate their likelihood of suffering from 45 different health problems of varying severity compared with that of their fellow students, they significantly rated themselves as less likely than their counterparts to suffer from 34 of these health issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Are People Optimistically Biased about the Risk of COVID-19 Infection? Lessons from the First Wave of the Pandemic in Europe

McColl

Debin

Souty

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Unrealistic optimism, the underestimation of one’s risk of experiencing harm, has been investigated extensively to understand better and predict behavioural responses to health threats. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a relative dearth of research existed in this domain regarding epidemics, which is surprising considering that this optimistic bias has been associated with a lack of engagement in protective behaviours critical in fighting twenty-first-century, emergent, infectious diseases. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating whether people demonstrated optimism bias during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, how this changed over time, and whether unrealistic optimism was negatively associated with protective measures. Taking advantage of a pre-existing international participative influenza surveillance network (n = 12,378), absolute and comparative unrealistic optimism were measured at three epidemic stages (pre-, early, peak), and across four countries—France, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Despite differences in culture and health response, similar patterns were observed across all four countries. The prevalence of unrealistic optimism appears to be influenced by the particular epidemic context. Paradoxically, whereas absolute unrealistic optimism decreased over time, comparative unrealistic optimism increased, suggesting that whilst people became increasingly accurate in assessing their personal risk, they nonetheless overestimated that for others. Comparative unrealistic optimism was negatively associated with the adoption of protective behaviours, which is worrying, given that these preventive measures are critical in tackling the spread and health burden of COVID-19. It is hoped these findings will inspire further research into sociocognitive mechanisms involved in risk appraisal.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Are People Optimistically Biased about the Risk of COVID-19 Infection? Lessons from the First Wave of the Pandemic in Europe

McColl

Debin

Souty

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…Running head: PERCEPTIONS OF ONLINE RISK AND HARM 6 However, cost-reward judgements might be prone to optimistic bias, a theory that states that individuals display a tendency to perceive negative events as less likely and positive events as more likely to happen to them (Higgins et al, 1997). Research by Cho, Lee, and Cheung (2010) showed online users to perceive others to be more vulnerable to privacy and safety concerns than themselves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetrical third-person effects on the perceptions of online risk and harm among adolescents and adults

Buglass

Binder

Betts

et al. 2020

Behaviour & Information Technology

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Although research has identified a range of opportunities, risks, and harms related to online social networking, the public debate on online risks follows a set pattern by which members of older age groups (parents, regulators) hold a picture of members of younger age groups (teenagers, digital natives) at a uniformly high level of risk. Perceptions of online risk, however, are prone to third-person effects in which individuals perceive risks to be more apparent in others than themselves. This study investigated third-person effects across age groups to further our understanding of the set positions found in current public debate.Multivariate analysis was used to compare adolescent and adult users' personal and thirdperson perceptions of common psycho-social risks associated with social networking engagement in a sample of 506 UK-based Facebook users (53% male; 13 to 77 years).Results indicated that rates of exposure to online vulnerabilities were similar for both age groups. However, differences in adult and adolescent perceptions of risk highlighted apparent mismatches between reported exposure to risk and an individual's perceptions, with adults demonstrating lower personal perceptions and higher third-person perceptions of risk than their adolescent counterparts. The research considers the implications of risk perception on an individual's online vulnerability.

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The impact of perceived experience on likelihood judgments for self and others: an experimental approach

Harris

2006

Euro J Social Psych

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This study examines the effect of an experimental manipulation of perceived experience on self and others' likelihood ratings for a set of relatively commonplace misfortunes. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were asked whether they had ever experienced the events (designed to induce higher perceived experience) or whether they had done so frequently, typically, etc. (designed to induce lower perceived experience). The manipulation led to increases in ratings of both perceived self-likelihood and others' likelihood, in ease of imagining the outcome and recall of a past occurrence, and to decreases in perceived control over the events in the higher perceived experience condition. The increases in ease of imagining mediated the impact of manipulated experience on comparative likelihood whereas the decreases in perceived control did not. There was little evidence that event controllability moderated the impact of experience on comparative likelihood for these events.

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Cited by 32 publications

References 20 publications

Are People Optimistically Biased about the Risk of COVID-19 Infection? Lessons from the First Wave of the Pandemic in Europe

Are People Optimistically Biased about the Risk of COVID-19 Infection? Lessons from the First Wave of the Pandemic in Europe

Asymmetrical third-person effects on the perceptions of online risk and harm among adolescents and adults

The impact of perceived experience on likelihood judgments for self and others: an experimental approach

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