Unrealistic optimism and genetic risk

Myriam Welkenhuysen · Gerry Evers‐Kiebooms · Marleen Decruyenaere · Herman VAN DEN BERGHE

52 citations0/0 files storedPsychology and Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Optimism, Hope, and Well-being Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics Risk Perception and Management

Abstract

The occurrence of unrealistic optimism with regard to a genetic risk situation was investigated within a group of female adults (study 1) and a group of adolescents (study 2). In both studies, the indirect method of measurement elicited a significant optimistic bias. Contrary to Weinstein (1982, 1987) we found no relation between the direct or indirect measures of unrealistic optimism and personal experience with the risk, perceived frequency of occurrence or perceived preventability of the risk. Trait-Anxiety was significantly related to the extent of unrealistic optimism, but only when the direct measure was used. Together with the fact that the indirect measure resulted in a much stronger bias than the direct one, this suggests that there exists an important difference between both measures. Further research on the measurement of unrealistic optimism and on its determinants in specific risk situations is needed.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 52 citations exist upstream.

References

1988Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health.1980Unrealistic optimism about future life events.1987Unrealistic optimism about susceptibility to health problems: Conclusions from a community-wide sample 1985Global self-evaluation as determined by the desirability and controllability of trait adjectives.1984Why it won't happen to me: Perceptions of risk factors and susceptibility.1989Optimistic Biases About Personal Risks 1982Unrealistic optimism about susceptibility to health problems 1986Self-other judgments and perceived vulnerability to victimization.

Cited by

2002Perceived Control and the Optimistic Bias: A Meta-Analytic Review 2003Optimistic bias and food 2000Third-Person Perception and Optimistic Bias Among Urban Minority At-Risk Youth 2004Personality Factors in Older Women's Perceived Susceptibility to Diseases of Aging 1997Unrealistic Optimism and Positive‐Negative Asymmetry: A Conceptual and Cross‐cultural Study of Interrelationships between Optimism, Pessimism, and Realism

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.