The impact of priming possible selves on perceptions of invulnerability among college students

• Main Author: Stout, David M
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2010
• Subjects: Behavioral psychology; Cognitive psychology
• ISBN: 9781124149059; 1124149058

Unrealistic optimism is the tendency for people to underestimate the likelihood of personally experiencing negative future events while overestimating their likelihood of experiencing positive future events relative to the average person. This cognitive bias has been implicated in the tendency to engage in health compromising behaviors. However, holding a positive current self-concept tends to be associated with less risk-taking behavior, but more unrealistically optimistic thinking. Similarly, people tend to hold largely positive "possible selves" that they hope to become in the future. While unrealistic optimism and positive possible selves appear to be similar, no previous research has explored the relationships between these constructs. Additionally, few studies have tested the assertion that unrealistic optimism is associated with the propensity to take health risks. Therefore, the present quantitative study investigated the relationships between current self-concept, risk-taking behaviors, expressions of unrealistic optimism, and possible selves among 361 students at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey. Participants completed self-report measures of self-esteem, risk-taking, and unrealistic optimism. In addition, an experimental method was used to investigate the effects of priming possible selves on expressions of unrealistic optimism. The results revealed that unrealistic optimism and possible selves are related constructs (r[359] = .43, p < .01). Also, self-esteem was found to be stronger than unrealistic optimism in predicting risk-taking behavior, t(357) = −3.87, p < .001. Finally, priming possible selves produced significant differences in unrealistically optimistic perceptions of the future, although these results did not fully support the research hypothesis. Future research should elaborate on the current study, specifically in terms of the differences detected in unrealistically optimistic possible selves according to level of self-esteem and ethnicity. Furthermore, future research should examine the applicability of unrealistically optimistic possible selves in therapeutic, educational, and organizational settings.