Dispositional optimism weakly predicts upward, rather than downward, counterfactual thinking: A prospective correlational study using episodic recall.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Gamlin J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7428155 | biostudies-literature | 2020
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Dispositional optimism weakly predicts upward, rather than downward, counterfactual thinking: A prospective correlational study using episodic recall.
Gamlin Jessica J Smallman Rachel R Epstude Kai K Roese Neal J NJ
PloS one 20200814 8
Counterfactual thoughts center on how the past could have been different. Such thoughts may be differentiated in terms of direction of comparison, such that upward counterfactuals focus on how the past could have been better, whereas downward counterfactuals focus on how the past could have been worse. A key question is how such past-oriented thoughts connect to future-oriented individual differences such as optimism. Ambiguities surround a series of past studies in which optimism predicted rela ...[more]
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