Giving Off a Rosy Glow: The Manipulation of an Optimistic Orientation

Research on generalized optimism has been primarily correlational in nature. The authors attempted to experimentally manipulate optimism separately from several related constructs (i.e., mood and self-esteem). They examined 2 different optimism manipulations. For the 1st one, participants generated thoughts about positive future events to induce an optimistic orientation. For the 2nd one, the authors exposed participants to an optimism-priming task. Both manipulations produced modest increases on a dispositional optimism measure and a situational optimism measure, compared with a control group. The momentary increases appeared particular to the optimism construct because the authors did not find similar increases on measures of mood and self-esteem. The authors provide preliminary evidence that generalized optimism can be validly and discriminantly manipulated.