| Overoptimism | Managing overoptimism | Managing overoptimism | Managing overoptimism |
| Over- or underestimate the frequency of favourable and/ or unfavourable outcomes. | Develop a willingness to be coached. | Quality coaching can get you over the water and nearer the target. | As with golf, if you have a bad experience, you learn and progress. |
| (Ashton and Roberts, 2005; Sharot, 2011; Shefrin, 2007). | Strengthen mental control by conscientiously committing to improvement (Cohen et al., 2006; Hayslip et al., 2010a; Hellstrom, 2009). | Commit to pre and post shot routines rather than dwelling on the leaderboard. | To reach the pin, with golf and financial planning, quality advice is critical. |
| Belief they are better than they actually are, exaggerate their ability to control events and blame. (Shefrin, 2007; Barber and Odean, 2001; Fischhoff, Slovic and Lichtenstein et al, 1977). | Manage one’s thinking by planning to reach the target. | Maintain focus on target rather than focusing on trying to avoid an action. | Like the successful, wealthy, good golfers know, bad golf cannot be rectified with blame. Instead, operating effectively requires careful analysis of fact prior to making financial decisions. |
| | Consider immediate shot in play and impact of decisions from previous play. | Manage thinking by planning to minimise bad shots and analysis of facts to play effectively. |
|
| | (Baker, Horton and Pearce et al., 2005; Binsch et al., 2009; Hill et al., 2011). | | |
| Emotional judgements | Managing emotional judgement | Managing emotional judgement | Managing emotional judgement |
| Create an illusion of control, believe to have influence over uncontrollable events built from earlier successes. | Adopt risk-averse behaviours to manage the impact of negative thinking created from prior unwanted outcome. | Top golfers focus on one shot at a time. To minimise loss, good golfers are more likely to play safe, leaving the ball short of the hole to avoid difficult follow-up putts | People forget about probabilities. Like golf, better to play safe and putt for par. |
| (Montier, 2007; Presson and Benassi, 1996). | (Forsyth, 2003: Pope and Schweitzer, 2011). | | |
