Seeing through rose-colored glasses: How optimistic expectancies guide visual attention

PloS One
Laura KressTatjana Aue

Abstract

Optimism bias and positive attention bias have important highly similar implications for mental health but have only been examined in isolation. Investigating the causal relationships between these biases can improve the understanding of their underlying cognitive mechanisms, leading to new directions in neurocognitive research and revealing important information about normal functioning as well as the development, maintenance, and treatment of psychological diseases. In the current project, we hypothesized that optimistic expectancies can exert causal influences on attention deployment. To test this causal relation, we conducted two experiments in which we manipulated optimistic and pessimistic expectancies regarding future rewards and punishments. In a subsequent visual search task, we examined participants' attention to positive (i.e., rewarding) and negative (i.e., punishing) target stimuli, measuring their eye gaze behavior and reaction times. In both experiments, participants' attention was guided toward reward compared with punishment when optimistic expectancies were induced. Additionally, in Experiment 2, participants' attention was guided toward punishment compared with reward when pessimistic expectancies were induce...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 9, 2018·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Andrew CrumpEmily J Bethell
Jul 30, 2019·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience·Laura Kress, Tatjana Aue
Sep 28, 2020·Behaviour Research and Therapy·Elinor AbadoHadas Okon-Singer
Jun 16, 2021·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Tatjana AueRaviteja Kotikalapudi

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