How do cognitive strategies and focusing on negative possibilities for an upcoming event interact to affect evaluation by others or interpersonal friction in social interactions? This study compares individuals who use defensive pessimism (DP), strategic optimism (SO), or realistic/regular pessimism (RP) as a cognitive strategy. Participants (23 DPs, 22 SOs, and 14 RPs) talked with a partner (who was a confederate in the experiment) after focusing on the possibilities of a negative event in the conversation (experimental condition) or waiting for several minutes (control condition). After the conversation, participants' perceived interpersonal friction was measured. Additionally, the confederates rated the participants' behavior and their impression of the conversations. The results showed that negatively-focused DPs were rated better than control DPs on several dimensions of their interactions (e.g., talked to confederate). Moreover, negatively-focused RPs reported more interpersonal friction than negatively-focused DPs, although there were no differences in evaluations by the confederates.

Key words: cognitive strategy, defensive pessimism, interpersonal behavior, focus manipulation