Importantly, a careful reader might raise a question about the general distinction of optimism and unrealistic optimism. This distortion is defined by Weinstein-creator of this concept-as “unrealistic optimism” where “negative events are less likely to happen to them than to others, and positive events are more likely to happen to them than to others” (Weinstein, 1980, p. This evolutionary preference continues to exist in the case of social comparisons, privileging the person making them, framing the future in a more flattering way. From an evolutionary perspective, early humans favored positive biases in order to deal with an environment that was difficult to predict as optimism provides greater benefits and fewer costs than pessimism (Haselton & Nettle, 2006 Jefferson et al., 2017). Throughout human history, the world has been viewed as unpredictable. These results can be applied to strategies for written and video communications that can be used by governments and public health agencies as best practices concerning not only COVID-19 but also any subsequent public health threat while promoting proactive, optimal, and healthy functioning of the individual. The third experiment, which included both articles and videos, replicated these results. Ostensibly, daily newspaper articles describing other people diligently following medical recommendations (experiment 1) and videos showing people who did not follow these recommendations (experiment 2) reduced unrealistic optimism. A between-subject factor was created by manipulation. Three experiments were run in a mixed-design on 1831 participants to eliminate unrealistic optimism (measured by two items-probability of COVID-19 infection for oneself and for others within-subjects) toward the probability of COVID-19 infection via articles/videos. By reducing fear, this bias boosts one's well-being however, it is also a deterrent to one's health. Unrealistic optimism is the tendency to perceive oneself as safer than others in situations that equally threaten everybody.
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