The Pollyanna Effect: The role of positive personal and group identity defense mechanisms

Objective. To study the socio-psychological mechanisms supporting the effect of linguistic positivity and its dynamics in crisis conditions.
Background. In the context of increasing hard-to-control climatic, military, economic and technological threats, research aimed at identifying the psychological mechanisms underlying the willingness of individuals and groups to positively evaluate themselves, their group and the world is becoming increasingly important. One of the results of such mechanisms is the Pollyanna effect – the tendency of people to give preference to positive information, manifested in assessments of the present, memories of the past and expectations about the future, and reflected in the prevalence of positive words over negative in the vocabulary of the language.
Conclusions. Individual, interpersonal and group socio-psychological mechanisms of the linguistic positivity effect have been identified, among which the former are much better studied than the others. At the individual level, the Pollyanna effect is supported by patterns of perception of positive and negative information, emotion counter-regulation, coping mechanisms, and positive illusions that protect the positive identity of the individual. At the interpersonal level, these mechanisms are shared positive experiences, interpersonal attraction, and trust. At the group level – group identification, positive group emotions and mechanisms supporting positive evaluation of one's group: ingroup favoritism, perceptual refences, construction of collective memory and collective image of the future. The assumption that the contribution of group identity to the Pollyanna effect increases in crises associated with the experience of hard-to-control threat and collective trauma is stated. Promising directions of socio-psychological research in this area are outlined. The results of our empirical research indicate that group identity participates in the processes of emotional self-regulation and mobilization of psychological resources when experiencing an uncontrollable threat, reducing the level of individual and collective anxiety. Promising directions of socio-psychological research in this area are outlined.

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