Paper time! 📜🤓
In 2020 we measured optimism and illness perceptions of COVID-19. Pop culture advocates for optmistic individuals as naive or careless. We found that this does not seem true in the data (N=7254), while also some differences across 10 countries:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/391316447_Scandinavian_Journal_of_Psychology_From_Unrealistic_to_Functional_Optimism_in_Illness_Perception_A_Psychometric_Comparison_Across_10_Countries