ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2020
Social optimism biases are associated with cortical thickness.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Unveiling the neural underpinnings of optimism: a systematic review.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Optimism bias, judgment of severity, and behavioral change during two stages of the pandemics in China.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Within-network brain connectivity during a social optimism task is related to personal optimism and optimism for in-group members.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Predictive modeling of optimism bias using gray matter cortical thickness.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Asymmetrical Update of Beliefs About Future Outcomes is Driven by Outcome Valence and Social Group Membership.International review of social psychology · 2023Article
- Whole-brain white matter correlates of personality profiles predictive of subjective well-being.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Brain Structure and Optimism Bias: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Approach.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Article
- In- and Out-Group Effects on Social Perception and Empathy in Cocaine Use Disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Reduced network integration in default mode and executive networks is associated with social and personal optimism biases.Human brain mapping · 2021Article
- Differences in Explicit Stereotype Activation among Social Groups Based on the Stereotype Content Model: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence in Chinese Sample.Brain sciences · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Optimism biases denote the tendency to see future desirable events as being more likely to happen to oneself than undesirable events. Such biases are important for mental health and may extend to other individuals or social groups (social optimism biases). However, little is known about whether social optimism biases relate to brain structure. Using sparse canonical correlation analysis, we associated cortical thickness (assessed by magnetic resonance imaging) with measures of social and personal optimism bias, trait optimism and related concepts. We identified a defensive self-enhancement dimension that associated significantly and reliably with the cortical thickness of the insula and inferior frontal cortex. This self-enhancement dimension included unfavorable biases toward unpopular out-groups and indicators of personal optimism and pessimism. A shared biological substrate underlying future expectancies that subserves the promotion of the self and the denigration of unpopular out-groups may render society-wide efforts to counteract stereotyping particularly difficult: such efforts may hinder the establishment of adaptive personal optimism biases.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.