UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM - A BEHAVIORAL-SCIENCES CLASSROOM DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Unrealistic optimism may contribute to risky health practices and to a delay in seeking treatment for medical conditions, as most individual s perceive themselves to be at little risk for various disorders. It i s thus an important concept to present to medical students as part of their behavioural sciences training. Social psychological concepts suc h as unrealistic optimism may appear, on initial presentation to stude nts, to be a misjudgement based on faulty understanding of risk estima tes by the general population. This project aimed to teach the princip le of unrealistic optimism by having students document their own belie fs about health risks. Students rated their own risk, relative to othe r classmates, of experiencing a range of 17 health problems. Questionn aires were completed by two classes of medical students (n = 257). Cla ss results showed varying levels of unrealistic optimism for all 17 co nditions. Males and females differed significantly on three of the 17 conditions. Student data were obtained rapidly in a large didactic set ting and served to illustrate the concept of unrealistic optimism whic h was subsequently taught in class. Such exercises may be a useful tea ching aid to students providing them with feedback on their own cognit ive processes and illustrating that they display cognitive distortions similar to those of patients.