Optimism across cultures: In response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak.

By L. Ji, Zhiyong Zhang, Esther Usborne, Yanjun Guan. 2004

122 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Based on our early research, we predicted that the Chinese may be more optimistic and less pessimistic than North Americans in response to negative life events. A survey was conducted to investigate optimism cross culturally in the context of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks in Canada and China. Chinese students in Beijing and European Canadians in Toronto answered questions about their perceptions of SARS. No significant cultural difference was found on dispositional optimism, as measured by the Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R). Unrealistic optimism was measured in the context of SARS. Both groups demonstrated unrealistic optimism (i.e. reporting that the self was less likely than an average person to get infected with SARS). Such optimistic bias was stronger among Chinese than among Canadians. Compared to the actual infection rates in Beijing and Toronto, both Chinese and Canadian participants overestimated their own chances of getting infected, indicating that they were being pessimistic. Indeed, Chinese were less pessimistic than Canadians. In addition, even though the Chinese reported more inconvenience brought by SARS than did Canadians, they also reported more positive changes brought by SARS, reflecting the Chinese dialectical views of events. Implications for research on optimism in context are discussed.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f8c166f02a6c59c04e8a45de781423691b87cdb5

Citations in the corpus

• Flawed Self-Assessment (2004, unknown): “For example, in the study by Ji et al. (2004), although Chinese respondents believed that they were less susceptible to SARS than their peers (i.e., relative risk), they overestimated their absolute risk of being infected.”