Does the awareness of a negative collective future reduce the positivity of personal future thinking

In general, anticipated personal future events are evaluated as more positive than autobiographical memories. This positivity bias is observed despite a negativity bias for the collective future. One explanation for the underlying reason for this bias may be focusing on personal lives with a lack of awareness of how the collective future may be related to the personal future. In the present study, it is hypothesized that when awareness of the negative collective future and its potential influence on the personal future is created, the positivity bias can be reduced. Eighty-six participants were tested. One group listened to a text that included information about the negative collective future and its influence on personal lives (negative text condition), and the other group listened to a text that described a neutral collective future (neutral text condition). All participants generated an important significant autobiographical memory, a future event that can happen in the near future, and another one that can happen in the distant future. As hypothesized the results showed that the positivity bias was reduced in the negative text condition, but not totally eliminated. Near and distant future events did not differ in positivity and centrality. However, autobiographical memories and future events differed in all comparisons. We found group differences in valence ratings but not in centrality ratings. The study shows the strength of the future positivity bias and suggests a potential explanation for it.