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The Effect of Unrealistic Optimism on Belief Updating and Physiological Arousal

Student: Iakovleva Antonina

Supervisor: Nadezhda Lebedeva

Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences

Educational Programme: Applied Social Psychology (Master)

Final Grade: 9

Year of Graduation: 2020

The phenomenon of unrealistic optimism has been a matter of concern for researchers for a long time. Being a hurdle for belief updating, it may bring unfavorable consequences to people. In the present study we aim to investigate whether people demonstrate a higher level of physiological arousal and resist belief updating more when they encounter a) self-relevant information, b) significant information. Participants (N = 20) were presented with a list of trivial and significant life events in self-relevant and general conditions. They were first asked to estimate the probability of the life events happening to them or to people in general, following by the correct statistical probabilities. Then, they were asked to estimate the probabilities of the life events again. Pupillary response to seeing the correct answer and belief updating were assessed. The results showed that participants resisted belief updating more when they encountered self-relevant information in comparison to general information. However, there was no significant difference in belief updating when encountering significant or trivial information. Participants showed no significant difference in the level of arousal in any condition. For further research it was proposed to conduct a study with a larger number of participants.

Full text (added September 30, 2020)

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