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    Autism, optimism and positive events: evidence against a general optimistic bias

    Harris, A.J.L. and Shah, P. and Catmur, C. and Bird, Geoffrey and Hahn, Ulrike (2013) Autism, optimism and positive events: evidence against a general optimistic bias. In: Knauff, M. and Pauen, M. and Sebanz, N. and Wachsmuth, I. (eds.) Cooperative Minds: Social Interaction and Group Dynamics: Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin. Texas, USA: Cognitive Science Society, pp. 555-560. ISBN 9780976831891.

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    Abstract

    The conclusion that people are optimistic concerning personal risk does not have a sound evidential basis. Following Harris and Hahn’s (2011) critique of unrealistic optimism research, we consider the evidence from a recent series of high profile neuroscience papers. We demonstrate that the methods used are fundamentally flawed. A simulation and an empirical comparison of autism spectrum condition participants with typical adults confirm that we have learnt nothing about optimism from these studies.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Book Section
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): optimism, human rationality, belief updating, statistical artifact
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Birkbeck Knowledge Lab
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 02 Jun 2015 11:06
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:16
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/12307

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