The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The optimism bias
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Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“it can lead people to underestimate their likelihood of contracting a disease 10”
From Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“When exposed to posi tive events, healthy individuals typically make the previous negative events irrelevant (Garrett and Sharot, 2017; Sharot, 2011).”
From Predictive coding in neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic transdiagnostic review. (2025) · cites this paper as Sharot, 2011
In the citing paper
“Humans form and update their beliefs in an optimistic manner, i.e., people update desirable (better than expected) news into their beliefs but discount or ignore undesirable (worse than expected) news (2, 19, 21).”
From Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback (2016) · cites this paper as [2]
In the citing paper
“depression, which is characterized by the lack of optimistic updating (2, 20).”
From Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback (2016) · cites this paper as [2]
In the citing paper
“Whereas optimistic updating is adaptive for mental health”
From Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback (2016) · cites this paper as [2]
In the citing paper
“excessive optimism, especially ignoring undesirable information, can be maladaptive (1, 2, 55)”
From Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback (2016) · cites this paper as [2]
Citations
Cites
Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.193 · Cited by 7,814
Unrealistic optimism about future life events
Weinstein, N. D. (1980) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.39.5.806 · Cited by 4,999
Manju Puri, B., & Robinson, D. T. (2007) · Journal of Financial Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2006.09.003 · Cited by 980
Cognitive bias and affective state
Harding, E. J., Paul, E. S., & Mendl, M. (2004) · Nature · doi:10.1038/427312a · Cited by 835
How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality
Sharot, T., Korn, C. W., & Dolan, R. J. (2011) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.2949 · Cited by 729
Self-citationThe evolution of overconfidence
JOHNSON, D. D. P., & Fowler, J. H. (2011) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature10384 · Cited by 649
McKay, R. T., & Dennett, D. C. (2009) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x09990975 · Cited by 474
Depressive symptoms are associated with unrealistic negative predictions of future life events
Strunk, D. R., Lopez, H., & DeRubeis, R. J. (2006) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.07.001 · Cited by 307
Matheson, S. M., Asher, L., & Melissa Bateson, B. (2007) · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2007.03.007 · Cited by 248
Human uniqueness and the denial of death
Varki, A. P. (2009) · Nature · doi:10.1038/460684c · Cited by 84
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response
Bavel, J. J. V., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N., et al. (2020) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z · Cited by 4,964
Lattimore, T., & Szepesvári, C. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108571401 · Cited by 1,196
Golman, R., Hagmann, D., & Loewenstein, G. F. (2017) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.20151245 · Cited by 835
How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality
Sharot, T., Korn, C. W., & Dolan, R. J. (2011) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.2949 · Cited by 729
Self-citationWise, T., Zbozinek, T. D., Michelini, G., Hagan, C. C., & Mobbs, D. (2020) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.200742 · Cited by 734
Metadata
- Authors
- Sharot, T.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Sharot, Tali
- ORCID
- Sharot, Tali
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-12
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 23
- Pages
- R941-R945
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4232964083
- Cited by
- 1,187
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 82 · 2025: 109 · 2024: 134 · 2023: 111 · 2022: 126 · 2021: 123 · 2020: 167 · 2019: 97 · 2018: 79 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 10.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- optimism bias, future expectations, overconfidence, self-projection, cognitive biases, decision-making, behavioral economics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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