Original studyPsych, 2026Read the paper →
When a doctor or therapist asks how you deal with stress, it is tempting to give the answer that sounds best. Few people like to admit that they turn to denial, blame themselves, or reach for a drink. A new Dutch study suggests that about one in four people describe their coping in an unrealistically positive light, and that this can distort the picture painted by widely used questionnaires.
Researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam surveyed 862 adults aged 18–71, most of them university students and more than half Dutch. The study, published in the journal Psych, focused on supernormality, an extreme form of positive response bias in which people present themselves as unusually well adjusted and free of ordinary problems.
Participants completed the Brief COPE, a popular questionnaire that asks how often people use 14 different coping strategies, together with a scale that detects supernormal responding. Based on that scale, 222 people, or 25.8% of the sample, were classed as supernormal, while the remaining 640 were classed as credible respondents. Supernormality goes beyond ordinary social desirability, the familiar urge to give approved answers, because supernormal respondents deny even the minor problems that almost everyone experiences.
The two groups described strikingly different ways of handling stress. Supernormal respondents reported more problem-focused coping, such as making plans and taking action, and less emotion-focused and avoidant coping than credible respondents.
The differences were especially clear for specific strategies. Supernormal respondents reported using humour, venting, giving up, denial, substance use, self-blame, and distracting themselves less often than other participants. Many of these are the strategies most closely tied to poor mental health, which means the bias could hide exactly the habits clinicians most need to know about.
The share of people showing this bias matches earlier research in other fields. Studies of teenagers, for example, have found that about a quarter underreport their substance use. The authors argue that even when people describe something as everyday as coping, the urge to look good can substantially shape their answers.
The study has some limitations. Most participants were young university students and nearly three quarters were women, so the findings may not apply equally to older adults or clinical groups. The design also cannot reveal whether supernormal respondents genuinely cope better or simply describe themselves that way.
The authors call for coping to be measured in ways that do not rely on self-report alone. Options include combining questionnaires with interviews, reports from partners or family members, or tracking behaviour in daily life. For therapists and researchers, the message is clear: a glowing account of how someone handles stress may not tell the whole story, and checking for response bias could make mental health assessments more accurate.
