Previous research has shown that personality traits, particularly neuroticism, are associated with internet-related problematic behaviors. In the cross-sectional research we investigated direct and ...indirect associations between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality traits and cyberchondria, considered as a health-related type of problematic internet use (PIU). In study 1 we examined the relationships between the FFM personality traits and cyberchondria, using a sample of young adults (N = 381). Results have revealed that, of the FFM personality traits, only neuroticism was associated with cyberchondria. In study 2, using a sample of community adults (N = 355), the effect of neuroticism on cyberchondria was confirmed. Furthermore, in study 2 we also found that the relationship between neuroticism and cyberchondria was mediated parallelly and sequentially by intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and defensive pessimism (DP). These findings highlight the importance of neuroticism, IU and DP as potential factors contributing to development or maintenance of cyberchondria. The empirically supported mediating processes extend the literature by elucidating some of the pathways, through which neuroticism is linked with cyberchondria. This knowledge may be useful for accurate prediction of cyberchondria in the context of dispositional variables.
•Examined relations among the FFM personality traits and cyberchondria.•Neuroticism is directly related to cyberchondria.•Intolerance of uncertainty and defensive pessimism sequentially mediate neuroticism-cyberchondria relationship.•Neuroticism, IU, and DP may be risk factors for cyberchondria.
In the literature, explanations of support for populist radical right (PRR) parties usually focus on voters' socio-structural grievances, political discontent or policy positions. This article ...suggests an additional and possibly overarching explanation: societal pessimism. The central argument is that the nostalgic character of PRR ideology resonates with societal pessimism among its voters. Using European Social Survey data from 2012, the study compares levels of societal pessimism among PRR, radical left, mainstream left and mainstream right (MR) voters in eight European countries. The results show that societal pessimism is distributed in a tilted U-curve, with the highest levels indeed observed among PRR voters, followed by radical left voters. Societal pessimism increases the chance of a PRR vote (compared to a MR vote) controlling for a range of established factors. Further analyses show that societal pessimism is the only attitude on which MR and PRR voters take opposite, extreme positions. Finally, there is tentative evidence that societal pessimism is channelled through various more specific ideological positions taken by PRR voters, such as opposition to immigration.
In six studies, we find evidence of efficiency neglect: when thinking about the effects of population growth, people intuitively focus on increased demand while neglecting the changes in production ...efficiency that occur alongside, and often in response to, increased demand. In other words, people tend to think of others solely as consumers, rather than as consumers as well as producers. Efficiency neglect leads to beliefs that the real costs of some consumer goods are rising when they are actually decreasing and may contribute to antiimmigration sentiments because of the fear that increasing local population creates competition for fixed resources. We demonstrate that economic pessimism and antiimmigration sentiments are reduced when people are prompted to consider their own beliefs about increased productivity over time, but are unchanged when they consider their beliefs about increases in demand. Together, these findings shed light on people's lay economic theories and suggest promising interventions.
Public Significance Statement
This article demonstrates the psychology behind a form of economic pessimism that has persisted for millennia and leads people to favor harmful policies.
Introduction
Cultural upbringing is an important factor that affects how one perceives the world and determines how blame is assigned when facing unfavorable outcomes. Governed by explanatory style, ...which refers to one’s pattern of causal explanations towards positive and negative situations, pessimism is defined as classifying bad events as internal, stable, and global within the personalization, permanence, and pervasiveness dimensions respectively (Peterson, 1992). This indicates that a pessimistic person would attribute a bad event as their own fault, as lasting, and as having great impact across all domains of their lives (Peterson, 1992).
Objectives
Previous research has shown that when comparing the levels of pessimism between Mainland Chinese individuals, Chinese American individuals, and White American individuals, the Mainland Chinese group is found to be the most pessimistic (Lee & Seligman, 1997). However, much of the existing research to date assessing pessimism and optimism in Asian samples do not define these concepts within the realms of the explanatory style. Instead, a broader and more generalized understanding is usually used. This review therefore seeks to investigate whether Asians are more pessimistic compared to people of other races as defined by the explanatory style (Peterson, 1992).
Methods
A search was conducted in two bibliographic databases (Medline OVID and PsycINFO) to identify articles for inclusion. Two reviewers screened the search independently through Covidence and performed a result analysis.
Results
A total of 20 peer-reviewed articles published between 1972 and 2022 are included that broadly compare the explanatory styles of Asians to other racial groups. Of the 20 studies, 3 papers specifically compare optimism versus pessimism in Asian groups, 4 papers mention coping strategies for “bad events”, 2 papers mention self-esteem, and 2 papers each mention causal attributions for success and failure respectively. When compared to other races, Asians were found to be more pessimistic, turn to faith and religion as a coping mechanism, have lower self-esteem, attribute success to external factors and internalize failure.
Conclusions
It is concluded that Asian groups internalize bad events, and view good events as external, which aligns with Asian groups being more pessimistic on the personalization dimension as defined by the explanatory style (Spencer-Rodgers et al., 2004; Anderson, 1999; Park & Kim, 1998). By understanding the cultural implications of the explanatory style, one can recognize why and in what way people behave and cope differently across cultures when facing adversity.
Disclosure of Interest
None Declared
The study examines the influence of dispositional traits (consumer optimism and consumer pessimism) upon the adoption of organic food. It also measures the mediation effect of environmental concern ...between dispositional traits and organic food consumption behaviour. An online survey was conducted through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The result shows that optimistic consumers consume more organic food than pessimistic consumers. The results also indicate that environmental concern has a positive influence on individuals’ consumption behaviour, and so pessimistic consumers may begin consuming organic food after concern for the environment has been induced in them. The key findings of this research reveals that environmental concern is a key predictor of food consumption behaviour, and that it may help in translating consumers’ pessimistic orientation into an optimistic one.
Offline Reinforcement Learning (RL) faces challenges such as distributional shift and unreliable value estimation, especially for out-of-distribution (OOD) actions. To address these issues, existing ...uncertainty-based methods penalize the value function with uncertainty quantification and require numerous ensemble networks, leading to computational challenges and suboptimal outcomes. In this paper, we introduce a novel strategy that employs diverse randomized value functions to estimate the posterior distribution of Q-values. This approach provides robust uncertainty quantification and estimates the lower confidence bounds (LCB) of Q-values. By applying moderate value penalties for OOD actions, our method fosters a provably pessimistic approach. We also emphasize diversity within randomized value functions and enhance efficiency by introducing a diversity regularization method, thereby reducing the requisite number of networks. These modules result in reliable value estimation and efficient policy learning from offline data. Theoretical analysis shows that our method recovers the provably efficient LCB-penalty under linear MDP assumptions. Extensive empirical results demonstrate that our proposed method significantly outperforms baseline methods in terms of performance and parametric efficiency.
The aim of this thesis is twofold: it explores Giacomo Leopardi's (1798-1837) interpretation of, and engagement with, Greek pessimistic thought and, through him, it investigates the complex and ...elusive phenomenon of Greek pessimistic thought itself. This thesis contends that Greek pessimistic thought – epitomised by but not limited to the famous wisdom of Silenus, the µὴ φῦναι topos – is an important element of Greek thought, a fundamental part of some of Greece's greatest literary works, and a vital element in the understanding of Greek culture in general. Yet this aspect of ancient thought has not yet received the attention it deserves, and in the history of its interpretation it has often been forgotten, denied, or purposefully obliterated. Furthermore, the pessimistic side of Greek thought plays a crucial role in both the modern history of the interpretation of antiquity and the intellectual history of Europe; I argue that this history is fundamentally incomplete without the appreciation of Leopardi's role in it. By his study of and engagement with ancient sources Leopardi contributed to the 19th century rediscovery of Greek pessimistic wisdom, alongside, though chronologically before, the likes of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jacob Burckhardt. Having outlined some fundamental steps in the history of the reception of Greek pessimism, this thesis examines the cardinal components of Leopardi's reception of it: his use of Greek conceptions of humanity to undermine modernity's anthropocentric fallacy, his reinterpretation of the Homeric simile of the leaves and its pessimistic undertones, and his views on the idea that it would be best for man not to be born.
This study aimed to examine the cognitive strategies utilized by college athletes in relation to trait anxiety in sports and self-regulation of learning. Data were collected from 346 student athletes ...belonging to University A (183 males and 163 females, average age 19.82 ± 1.01 years). The scales used included the Cognitive Strategy Scale, the Trait Anxiety Inventory for Sport, and the Self-Regulation of Learning in Sports Scale. The results obtained using the Cognitive Strategy Scale divided the athletes into 4 groups who utilized different cognitive strategies: the UO group, the DP group, the RP group, and the SO group. It was found that the DP and RP groups, which exhibited a tendency for pessimism, scored higher than the UO and SO groups in terms of trait anxiety. This suggested that DP and RP groups were more anxious before and during a match than the UO and SO groups. Finally, when the characteristics of the cognitive strategies were examined from the perspective of selfregulation of learning, it was found that the DP and SO groups scored higher than the UO and RP groups. These results suggest that DP and SO in athletes may have a higher quality of practice, while differing in their level of trait anxiety.
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