<p>This is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_illusions#Types" rel="nofollow noreferrer">optimism bias</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>... a tendency for people to overestimate their likelihood of
  experiencing a wide variety of pleasant events, such as enjoying their
  first job or having a gifted child, and somewhat underestimate their
  risk of succumbing to negative events, such as getting divorced or
  falling victim to a chronic disease.</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Optimism bias</a> is a type of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enhancement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">self-enhancement</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>... a preference for positive over negative self-views.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_illusions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">positive illusions</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>... unrealistically favorable attitudes that people have towards
  themselves or to people that are close to them.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-03T21:14:36.207Z
2019-11-03T21:14:36.207Z
Arnon Weinberg
<p>Whenever people experience specific medical symptoms, they might research it online and find out that there is a possibility of a certain cancer being the culprit, they then might see that the chances of getting that cancer is 1 in a million. So they would often shrug it off as "Well that will never happen to me!", whereas that same person might go to the local store to purchase a lottery ticket that has a chance of winning set at 1 in 30 million and they then feel like the chance is high enough to win.</p>

<p>I am looking to find out if there is a particular name for this type of behaviour / thought process. I'm interested in research papers regarding these behaviours.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-01T08:48:57.030Z
I think there's a lot in this interesting question. Possible terms that may contribute here are: [Confirmation Bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias), [Planning Fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy), certain kind of misalignment between Conscious and Subconscious i.e. [Self-Regulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-regulation_theory), further the non-intuitive nature of Statistic models and Game Theory. I guess other people have clarified this question already, so I would like to try to find a point or a paper to all this soon.
peter_the_oak
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-03T10:16:26.990Z
Also these seem to be important: [Loss Aversion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion), and [Risk Aversion](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/3655/relationship-between-cognitive-load-and-self-indulgent-behavior-in-simple-task-c). My guts tell me that there are soon enough mosaic stones for a reasoned answer :-)
peter_the_oak
<cognitive-psychology>
What's the human behaviour called that often makes us warp realities to appease another?
Rstew
# What's the human behaviour called that often makes us warp realities to appease another?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-10-30)

Whenever people experience specific medical symptoms, they might research it online and find out that there is a possibility of a certain cancer being the culprit, they then might see that the chances of getting that cancer is 1 in a million. So they would often shrug it off as "Well that will never happen to me!", whereas that same person might go to the local store to purchase a lottery ticket that has a chance of winning set at 1 in 30 million and they then feel like the chance is high enough to win.

I am looking to find out if there is a particular name for this type of behaviour / thought process. I'm interested in research papers regarding these behaviours.

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I think there's a lot in this interesting question. Possible terms that may contribute here are: [Confirmation Bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias), [Planning Fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy), certain kind of misalignment between Conscious and Subconscious i.e. [Self-Regulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-regulation_theory), further the non-intuitive nature of Statistic models and Game Theory. I guess other people have clarified this question already, so I would like to try to find a point or a paper to all this soon.  
> **username_1**: Also these seem to be important: [Loss Aversion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion), and [Risk Aversion](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/3655/relationship-between-cognitive-load-and-self-indulgent-behavior-in-simple-task-c). My guts tell me that there are soon enough mosaic stones for a reasoned answer :-)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-11-03. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

This is called [optimism bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_illusions#Types):

> ... a tendency for people to overestimate their likelihood of
> experiencing a wide variety of pleasant events, such as enjoying their
> first job or having a gifted child, and somewhat underestimate their
> risk of succumbing to negative events, such as getting divorced or
> falling victim to a chronic disease.

[Optimism bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias) is a type of [self-enhancement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enhancement):

> ... a preference for positive over negative self-views.

and [positive illusions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_illusions):

> ... unrealistically favorable attitudes that people have towards
> themselves or to people that are close to them.


---

