Illusions of well-being and the repressive coping style

Abstract

Recently, the proposition that it is normal for people to see themselves in illusorily positive terms has been challenged and it has been suggested that this phenomenon may be explained by the contribution of subgroups of overly positive individuals. We investigated this possibility by examining the contribution of repressive individuals, who tend to avoid negative affect, to the illusions of unrealistic optimism and overly positive self-evaluations. Whereas normal and non-anxious controls showed no evidence of illusory biases, repressors rated themselves as significantly less likely than the average person to experience negative events, and rated negative words as significantly less descriptive of self than others. These findings support the hypothesis that, in judgements involving negative material, the presence of repressors may be contributing to findings of illusory biases.