Are Americans more Optimistic than the Chinese?

A total of 613 subjects, including257 White American students, 312 mainland Chinese students, and 44 Chinese American students, completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire. It was found that (a) mainland Chinese were more pessimistic than Chinese Americans, who were more pessimistic than White Americans, (b) mainland Chinese were less self-blaming (i.e., attributed their failure less internally than the traditional Chinese culture expects) and attributed their success to other people or circumstances, and (c) White Americans had more lopsidedness or self-serving bias than Chinese Americans and mainland Chinese-that is, White Americans attributed their success to themselves and their failure to others or circumstances more often than did mainland Chinese. The authors also found that mainland Chinese optimism was associated more with academic and financial accomplishment, psychological confidence and persistence, and physical health.