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Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research pp 4938–4941Cite as

Positivity Bias

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Synonyms

Pollyanna principle; Wishful thinking

Definition

Positivity bias may denote three phenomena: a tendency for people to report positive views of reality; a tendency to hold positive expectations, views, and memories; and a tendency to favor positive information in reasoning.

Description

In its most phenomenological and least controversial meaning, positivity bias denotes a tendency for people to judge reality favorably. To the extent that their positive judgments reflect genuinely held positive views, positivity bias may be thought of as the tendency to construe, view, and recall reality flatteringly, including a tendency to approach unknown objects (such as individuals, situations, events, and life in general) with positive rather than with neutral expectations. Positivity bias may also (more controversially) refer to the phenomenon that people favor positive data in information processing. Reflecting this hybrid nature of what may be named “positivity bias,” the subtitle of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Social and Cultural Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Vera Hoorens

Authors
  1. Vera Hoorens
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vera Hoorens .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

  2. (residence), Brandon, MB, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Hoorens, V. (2014). Positivity Bias. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2219

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2219

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0752-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0753-5

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