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Keywords:

Social Sciences, Psychology, Social, Psychology, 1608 Sociology, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Social Psychology, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

Positivity bias is approached from three viewpoints: (a) It may be the effect of purely cognitive dispositions. (b) As such, it may function as an hypothesis about reality. The related dynamic factor would be a tendency toward cognitive validity which may lead to an orientation toward the negative as a means to test the positivity‐hypothesis. (c) Finally, the subject may seek rewarding behavioral interactions with entities within his life space. In this context cognitive positivity bias may reflect a behavioural approach bias which can be related to the dynamics of ‘mere survival’ and ‘self‐actualization’. Copyright © 1971 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd