These events had been validated and selected so that they are matched on five key event characteristics, namely perceived frequency in the general population, controllability, valence (i.e., deviation from neutral), and emotional intensity. Our investigation hence aimed to fill these two gaps in knowledge-valence aspects and gender differences in optimism bias-by asking male and female respondents to rate for themselves and for the general population the chances of experiencing a series of positive and negative events. To our knowledge, no studies have investigated gender differences in optimistic expectations across a diverse range of both positive and negative situations. negative scenarios is strongly indicated. Yet, to draw firm conclusions about gender differences in optimism bias, a broader consideration of multiple positive vs. These studies also revealed that men were more optimistically biased than were women-but only for the negative event. Other studies focused on a single positive event (“having a happy marriage”) and a single negative event (“getting divorced”), which were not matched on any characteristics apart from their complementarity 17, 18. 11, 12, 13), where men and women have different perceptions of and attitudes toward risk (e.g., on average, more males than females favor risk 12, 14, 15, 16). Some studies found that men are more optimistic than women, but these findings relate to financial and economic contexts (e.g. Hence, to adequately investigate valence aspects in optimism bias, the current work controlled for influences of diverse critical characteristics.Īnother open question concerns gender differences in optimistic expectancies. In addition, the majority of studies comparing optimism for both positive and negative outcomes have not matched these outcomes on critical characteristics such as perceived frequency or controllability in the general population 6, which can significantly influence the magnitude of optimism displayed 5, 10. Most previous studies have predominantly focused on negative outcomes such as accidents and illnesses. Research has shown that most people are in fact overly optimistic about their personal future 4, 5, but one pending question is whether this optimism bias results from expecting more positive outcomes or less negative ones than would otherwise be warranted 6, 7, 8, 9. Optimism bias refers to the tendency to display unjustified high expectations of future positive outcomes and/or unjustified low expectations of future negative events 1, 2, 3.
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