Self-Favoring Biases for Positive and Negative Characteristics: Independent Phenomena?

Abstract

The relative underestimation of one's own likelihood of experiencing negative events (optimistic bias for negative events) and the relative overestimation of one's own likelihood of experiencing positive events (optimistic bias for positive events) have typically been treated as the same. Distinctions between the relative underestimation of the degree to which one possesses negative traits or shows negative behaviors (superiority bias for negative traits and behaviors) and the relative overestimation of the degree to which one possesses positive traits or shows positive behaviors (superiority bias for positive traits and behaviors) have been similarly absent. However, more and more evidence is accumulating that biases for positive and negative characteristics (i.e., events, behaviors, and traits) may be at least partly independent. Here, the evidence for the (partial) independence of biases for positive and negative characteristics is critically examined. Implications for theory and research on self-favoring biases are discussed.