The Optimism Bias Is Adaptable

In many cases, the optimism bias is adaptive. It leads us to take action where wise we might just be rather passive in situations. But it can also lead us to be very over confident in our ability to handle certain types of situations that are really quite dangerous and are beyond our capability. We saw this with regard to cigarette smoking - people recognize that smoking is not good for your health, but they felt that they could smoke in ways that minimized those risks. And i think even professor sherot would say that in many cases, the Optimism Bias is adaptive.