Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 2023, Vol. 38, No. 3, 539-559 https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2023.38.3.31 Optimism Bias, Fear, and Compliance with COVID-19 Related Protective Behaviors Among Healthy and Diabetic Young Adults Mahwish Ali Khan and Ruhi Khalid Beaconhouse National University On March 11th, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic; and caused more than 4 million deaths worldwide. In Pakistan, government efforts to minimize the spread of disease emphasized protective behaviors including social distancing, hand washing, self-isolation, and seeking medical attention if experiencing symptoms. However, the local populace remained largely disengaged, seemed unaware, and failed to adhere to official preventive guidelines from the government. This study investigated the relationship among optimism bias, fear of COVID-19, and compliance with COVID-19-related protective behaviors among a sample of healthy and high-risk young adults diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Fifty healthy and 50 diabetic young adults aged 18-23 years were administered the Optimism Bias Measurement (Druică et al., 2020), Fear of COVID-19 Scale (Ahorsu et al., 2020), and the Preventive COVID-19 Infection Behavior Scale (Chang et al., 2020). The results revealed that optimism bias had a significant negative, and fear of COVID-19 had a significant positive correlation with compliance with COVID-19-related protective behaviors. Moreover, healthy young adults had significantly higher optimism bias, but lower fear and compliance as compared to diabetic young adults. Overall, the findings will facilitate public health policymakers and social scientists to better understand the factors that can influence compliance with preventive protocols enforced against the pandemic in Pakistan. Keywords. Healthy young adults, type 1 diabetes, optimism bias, fear of COVID-19, compliance with protective behaviors Being hailed as one of the greatest humanitarian crises since World War II, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on nearly all aspects of global societies across 220 countries, including over 200 Mahwish Ali Khan and Ruhi Khaild, Institute of Psychology, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Pakistan. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mahwish Ali Khan, Institute of Psychology, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Pakistan. Email: mahwishyasir33@hotmail.com