Unrealistic optimism
Weinstein (1983, 1984) suggested that one of the reasons we continue to practice unhealthy behaviours is our inaccurate perceptions of risk and susceptibility. He gave participants a list of health problems to examine and then asked: ‘Compared to other people of your age and sex, are your chances of getting [the problem] greater than, about the same as, or less than theirs?’ Most participants believed that they were less likely to experience the health problem. Clearly, this would not be true of everyone, so Weinstein called this phenomenon unrealistic optimism.
Weinstein (1987) described four cognitive factors that contribute to unrealistic optimism:
1. lack of personal experience with the problem;
2. the belief that the problem is preventable by individual action;
3. the belief that if the problem has not yet appeared, it will not appear in the future; and
4. the belief that the problem is infrequent.
These factors suggest that our perception of our own risk is not a rational process. In an attempt to explain why individuals’ assessment of their risk may go wrong, and why people are unrealistically optimistic, Weinstein (1983) argued that individuals show selective focus. He claimed that we ignore our own risk-increasing behaviour (‘I may not always practise safe sex, but that’s not important’) and focus primarily on our risk-reducing behaviour (‘At least I don’t inject drugs’). He also argued that this selectivity is compounded by egocentrism – individuals tend to ignore others’ risk-decreasing behaviour (‘My friends all practise safe sex, but that’s irrelevant’) and focus on the risk-increasing behaviour of those around them (‘My friends sometimes drive too fast’).
Weinstein (1983, 1984) suggested that one of the reasons we continue to practice unhealthy behaviours is our inaccurate perceptions of risk and susceptibility. He gave participants a list of health problems to examine and then asked: ‘Compared to other people of your age and sex, are your chances of getting [the problem] greater than, about the same as, or less than theirs?’ Most participants believed that they were less likely to experience the health problem. Clearly, this would not be true of everyone, so Weinstein called this phenomenon unrealistic optimism.
Weinstein (1987) described four cognitive factors that contribute to unrealistic optimism:
1. lack of personal experience with the problem;
2. the belief that the problem is preventable by individual action;
3. the belief that if the problem has not yet appeared, it will not appear in the future; and
4. the belief that the problem is infrequent.
These factors suggest that our perception of our own risk is not a rational process. In an attempt to explain why individuals’ assessment of their risk may go wrong, and why people are unrealistically optimistic, Weinstein (1983) argued that individuals show selective focus. He claimed that we ignore our own risk-increasing behaviour (‘I may not always practise safe sex, but that’s not important’) and focus primarily on our risk-reducing behaviour (‘At least I don’t inject drugs’). He also argued that this selectivity is compounded by egocentrism – individuals tend to ignore others’ risk-decreasing behaviour (‘My friends all practise safe sex, but that’s irrelevant’) and focus on the risk-increasing behaviour of those around them (‘My friends sometimes drive too fast’).
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