Three experiments demonstrated that the experience of power leads to an illusion of personal control. Regardless of whether power was experientially primed (Experiments 1 and 3) or manipulated through roles (manager vs. subordinate; Experiment 2), it led to perceived control over outcomes that were beyond the reach of the power holder. Furthermore, this illusory control mediated the influence o...

Optimism is an individual difference variable that reflects the extent to which people hold generalized favorable expectancies for their future. Higher levels of optimism have been related prospectively to better subjective well-being in times of adversity or difficulty (i.e., controlling for previous well-being). Consistent with such findings, optimism has been linked to higher levels of engag...

Recent theoretical discussions of optimism as an inherent aspect of human nature converge with empirical investigations of optimism as an individual difference to show that optimism can be a highly beneficial psychological characteristic linked to good mood, perseverance, achievement, and physical health. Questions remain about optimism as a research topic and more generally as a societal value...

In any group decision making, stakeholders have different powers, proficiency and also experiences. These power weights are very difficult to obtain, because group managers avoid revealing the relative powers of the stakeholders to prevent more conflict among them. Therefore, in many studies, the different powers have not been well accounted and then equal power weights have been assigned to ea...

Consider a firm owned by shareholders with heterogeneous beliefs and run manager who chooses random production plans. Shareholders do not observe the chosen plan but only its realization. The financial market consists of assets contingent on realizations. A contract for specifies her compensation as function firm’s possibly some restrictions to trade in market. are unrestricted. We define conce...

BACKGROUND Prior research has identified unrealistic optimism as a bias that might impair informed consent among patient-subjects in early-phase oncology trials. However, optimism is not a unitary construct; it also can be defined as a general disposition, or what is called dispositional optimism. The authors assessed whether dispositional optimism would be related to high expectations for pers...

A series of experiments investigated why people value optimism and whether they are right to do so. In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants prescribed more optimism for someone implementing decisions than for someone deliberating, indicating that people prescribe optimism selectively, when it can affect performance. Furthermore, participants believed optimism improved outcomes when a person's ac...

A series of experiments investigated why people value optimism and whether they are right to do so. In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants prescribed more optimism for someone implementing decisions than for someone deliberating, indicating that people prescribe optimism selectively, when it can affect performance. Furthermore, participants believed optimism improved outcomes when a person’s ac...

4 THE OPTIMISTIC ENTREPRENEUR 5 1 OPTIMISM AND CREATIVE SOLUTIONS 8 2 OPTIMISM AND THE DECISION TO LAUNCH 11 3 OPTIMISM AND PLANNING 15 4 OPTIMISM AND THE PROCESS TOWARDS INNOVATION 18