Temporal aspects of unrealistic optimism and robustness of this bias: A longitudinal study in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

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cris.lastimport.scopus2025-04-09T03:12:32Z
dc.abstract.enNumerous studies on unrealistic optimism (UO) have shown that people claim they are less exposed to COVID-19 infection than others. Yet, it has not been assessed if this bias evolves; does it escalate or diminish when the information about the threat changes? The present paper fills this gap. For 12 months 120 participants estimated their own and their peers’ risk of COVID-19 infection. Results show that UO regarding COVID-19 infection is an enduring phenomenon–It was the dominant tendency throughout almost the entire study and was never substituted by Unrealistic Pessimism. While the presence of UO-bias was constant, its magnitude changed. We tested possible predictors of these changes: the daily new cases/deaths, the changes in governmental restrictions and the mobility of participants’ community. Out of these predictors, only changes in governmental restrictions proved to be significant- when the restrictions tightened, UO increased.
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii we Wrocławiu
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.contributor.authorIzydorczak, Kamil
dc.contributor.authorAntoniuk, Karolina
dc.contributor.authorKulesza, Wojciech
dc.contributor.authorMuniak, Paweł
dc.contributor.authorDoliński, Dariusz
dc.contributor.editorMaurizio Fiaschetti
dc.date.access2022-12-15
dc.date.accessioned2024-06-27T11:28:46Z
dc.date.available2024-06-27T11:28:46Z
dc.date.created2022-11-08
dc.date.issued2022-12-15
dc.description.abstract<jats:p>Numerous studies on unrealistic optimism (UO) have shown that people claim they are less exposed to COVID-19 infection than others. Yet, it has not been assessed if this bias evolves; does it escalate or diminish when the information about the threat changes? The present paper fills this gap. For 12 months 120 participants estimated their own and their peers’ risk of COVID-19 infection. Results show that UO regarding COVID-19 infection is an enduring phenomenon–It was the dominant tendency throughout almost the entire study and was never substituted by Unrealistic Pessimism. While the presence of UO-bias was constant, its magnitude changed. We tested possible predictors of these changes: the daily new cases/deaths, the changes in governmental restrictions and the mobility of participants’ community. Out of these predictors, only changes in governmental restrictions proved to be significant- when the restrictions tightened, UO increased.</jats:p>
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.issue12
dc.description.physical1-17
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.description.volume17
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0278045
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/764
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0278045
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_JOURNAL
dc.swps.sciencecloudnosend
dc.titleTemporal aspects of unrealistic optimism and robustness of this bias: A longitudinal study in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
dc.title.journalPLOS ONE
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle