@booklet {budescu-tewte1993,
	title = {Elusive Wishful Thinking Effect, The},
	howpublished = {Discussion Papers},
	year = {1993},
	month = {7},
	publisher = {Thinking and Reasoning 1 (1995), 71-104},
	abstract = {We define a desirability effect as the inflation of the judged probability of desirable events and the diminution of the judged probability of undesirable events. A series of studies designed to detect this effect is reported. In the first four experiments, subjects were presented with visual stimuli (a grid matrix in two colors, or a jar containing beads in two colors), and asked to estimate the probability of drawing at random one of the colors. The estimated probabilities for a defined draw were not higher when the draw entailed a gain than when it entailed a loss. In the fifth and sixth experiment, subjects read short stories each describing two contestants competing for some desirable outcome (e.g., firms competing for a contract). Some judged the probability that A would win, others judged the desirability that A would win. Story elements which enhanced a contestant{\textquoteright}s desirability without having normative bearing on its winning probability did not cause the favored contestant to be judged more likely to win. Only when a contestant{\textquoteright}s desirability was enhanced by promising the subject a monetary prize contingent on that contestant{\textquoteright}s win was there some slight evidence for a desirability effect: contestants were judged more likely to win when the subject expected a prize if they won than when the subject expected a prize if the other contestant won. In the last experiment, subjects estimated the probability of an over-20 point weekly change in the Dow Jones average, and were promised monetary prizes contingent on such a change either occurring, or failing to occur. They were also given a monetary incentive for accuracy. Subjects who desired a large change did not judge it more likely to occur than subjects who desired a small change. We discuss the difficulty of obtaining a desirability effect on probabilities, and argue that apparently wishful thinking{\textendash} in the form of optimistic cognitions {\textendash} can occur without affecting the evaluation of evidence.},
	url = {/files/dp_29.pdf},
	author = {Budescu, Maya Bar-Hillel and David}
}
