Self As a Source of Self-Positivity Bias

People believe they are less at risk for negative events compared to the average person (self-positivity bias). The focus of the literature has been on documenting this bias rather than on understanding the factors that instantiate it. We focus on the factors that affect self-positivity bias. We view self-positivity bias as a self–other discrepancy in risk estimate, and investigate factors relating to the self and the other as two different sources of the discrepancy. In respect to the self, we find that self-risk estimates are affected by selective processing and selective recall of risk decreasing and risk increasing factors.

Citation:

Parthasarathy Krishnamurthy and Magdalena Cismaru (2005) ,"Self As a Source of Self-Positivity Bias", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Karin M. Ekstrom and Helene Brembeck, Goteborg, Sweden : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 210-211.