Depressive realism is the idea that depressed people have more accurate beliefs than the general population. It's a common factoid in “things I learned” lists, and often posited as a matter of settled science.

In this post, I’ll explore whether it's true.

Where It Began

The depressive realism hypothesis was first studied by Lauren Alloy and Lyn Yvonne Abramson, in a paper called Judgment of contingency in depressed and nondepressed students: Sadder but wiser?. Undergraduates had access to a button, which might (or might not) influence whether a light came on. Depressed students - but not nondepressed students - were pretty good at guessing how much influence the button had over the light. Specifically, nondepressed students tended to think they had more control than they actually did.

In other words, the seminal study showed something a lot more specific than “depressed people are more accurate”. It showed that they [...]

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Outline:

(00:22) Where It Began

(04:30) Replications and Complications

(10:55) Is This Post Comprehensive?

(12:04) Conclusion

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.