Optimism and Social Support: The Providers‘ Perspective

Optimism is an important determinant of mental and physical health, in particular when people are confronted with stressful situations. Social support has been proposed as a mechanism which mediates these beneficial health effects of optimism. It has been proposed that optimists are more socially attractive than pessimists, and as a consequence, they are provided with more social support (e.g. Peterson & Bossio, 2001). In line with this assumption, various studies have shown a positive relationship between optimism and indicators of social support, such as the availability of helpful others or the frequency of helpful interactions (e.g., Brisette, Scheier, & Carver, 2002). However, all these results are based on self-reports of the support recipients. Thus, only the view of optimists and pessimists themselves about social support was considered, while the perspective of the support providers has been comparably neglected. Therefore, the question arises as to whether optimists are in fact provided with more social support, or merely perceive their social environment as more supportive than pessimists. Accordingly, the major aim of the present research was to examine to what extent optimists, pessimists and additionally realists elicit different social reactions, such as a different intention to provide social support, in their social interaction partners.