Depression is related to an absence of optimistically biased belief updating about future life events
Open accessAbstract
Background: When challenged with information about the future, healthy participants show an optimistically biased updating pattern, taking desirable information more into account than undesirable information. However, it is unknown how patients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD), who express pervasive pessimistic beliefs, update their beliefs when receiving information about their future. Here we tested whether an optimistically biased information processing pattern found in healthy individuals is absent in MDD patients. Method: MDD patients ( n = 18; 13 medicated; eight with co-morbid anxiety disorder) and healthy controls ( n = 19) estimated their personal probability of experiencing 70 adverse life events. After each estimate participants were presented with the average probability of the event occurring to a person living in the same sociocultural environment. This information could be desirable (i.e. average probability better than expected) or undesirable (i.e. average probability worse than expected). To assess how desirable versus undesirable information influenced beliefs, participants estimated their personal probability of experiencing the 70 events a second time. Results: Healthy controls showed an optimistic bias in updating, that is they changed their beliefs more toward desirable versus undesirable information. Overall, this optimistic bias was absent in MDD patients. Symptom severity correlated with biased updating: more severely depressed individuals showed a more pessimistic updating pattern. Furthermore, MDD patients estimated the probability of experiencing adverse life events as higher than healthy controls. Conclusions: Our findings raise the intriguing possibility that optimistically biased updating of expectations about one's personal future is associated with mental health.
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Optimistic updating cannot be interpreted purely on the basis of selective attention, cognitive, or mnemonic abilities in processing desirable and undesirable feedback.
“optimistic updating could not be interpreted purely on the basis of selective attention, cognitive, or mnemonic abilities in processing desirable and undesirable feedback (19, 20, 45)”
From Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback (2016) · cites this paper as [20]
Optimistic updating relies on a learning process involving asymmetric information integration.
“but relied on a learning process involving asymmetric information integration (20, 41).”
From Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback (2016) · cites this paper as [20]
Depression is characterized by the lack of optimistic updating.
“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 [20]
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- Authors
- Korn, C. W., Sharot, T., Walter, H., Heekeren, H. R., & Dolan, R. J.
- Affiliations
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- University College London (GB)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Korn, C. W.
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2013-05-15
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 579-592
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC3880066
- OpenAlex
- W2050383033
- Cited by
- 334
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 21.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091593, 091593/Z/10/, 098362, 098362/Z/12/Z, 091593/Z/10/Z, 095844, 098362/Z/12/)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- major depressive disorder, optimism bias, belief updating, pessimism, life events, probability estimation, future expectations, symptom severity, anxiety comorbidity, cognitive biases
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Anxiety Disorders, Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Imagination, Intelligence Tests, Interview, Psychological, Life Change Events, Male, Models, Psychological, Probability, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Set, Psychology, Severity of Illness Index, Case-Control Studies, Anticipation, Psychological, Hope
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