Neoliberal values promote perceived comparative optimism: the indirect role of internality / Los valores neoliberales fomentan un optimismo comparativo percibido: el papel indirecto de la internalidad

Abstract

Comparative optimism is the self-advantageous tendency to think that positive events will happen to us more than to others and that negative events are more likely to happen to others than to oneself. This trend that values the self or values others less and requires a feeling of control is recurrent in Western societies. We assume that dominant neoliberal values in these societies facilitate the expression of comparative optimism. The main objective of the present study is to show that the priming of neoliberal values will promote the emergence of comparative optimism and internality. To achieve this goal, we primed neoliberal values using advertisements. In accordance with our main hypothesis, priming with neoliberal values had an indirect effect more on comparative optimism than neutral priming. Using manipulated variables, we confirmed the causal link between neoliberal values and the evaluation of one normative dimension of individualism (internality). The valorization of internality would appear to partially explain the link between neoliberal values and comparative optimism, confirming the support of our main hypothesis. The implications of these results are discussed from an ideological and socio-constructivist perspective.