Better liked but not more supported: Optimism and social support from a provider's perspective

Investigated social responses toward optimists, pessimists, and realists in stressful situations differing in controllability. Prior research has mostly focused on optimists and their perceptions but not on the actual attitudes or actions of the support providers which this study aimed to address. Six videotaped interactions were shown to 200 German university students (mean age of 23 years) whose responses were assessed in four areas: their evaluation of the target personality (e.g., optimistic, pessimistic, or realistic) and his/her displayed behavior, interpersonal attitudes (e.g., whether they found the individual likeable or attractive) and finally the extent to which they would be willing to provide support. Results showed that although optimists were on the whole much better liked than pessimists, participants were actually less willing to provide them with support. These findings suggest that the greater amount of received social support reported by optimists is actually part of an illusion that they hold. The authors suggest that for optimists the 'sense of acceptance', i.e., the experience of being looked upon favorably by others could be a key factor contributing to health and well-being.