It’s the Hope That Kills You: Lay Attitudes about Optimism in the Face of a Pandemic

Six preregistered studies examined if people desire optimism/realism/pessimism from forecasters, friends, and leaders during a crisis. We asked people to prescribe how other people should estimate the likelihood of positive and negative pandemic-related outcomes. People generally think other people—across various roles—should be pessimistic. Follow-up studies examined several key mechanisms.