The (Over-)Optimism of Creators

We have a new post up on the Psychology Today blog detailing two laboratory studies by one of us (Sprigman) along with Christopher Buccafusco of the Chicago-Kent College of Law.  The studies show that creators tend to be markedly over-optimistic about the market propects of their work. Which means, in turn, that they tend to over-value their work. This overvaluation makes transactions in creative works more difficult.  But it also makes creativity more robust — even in the face of expected losses from piracy.  So, good news and bad news, I suppose.  But interesting either way.