Positive Illusions

by Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis

Argues that the healthy human mind cordons off negative information, argues that self-deception can be positive, and looks at how people face adversity

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy

244 pages, Hardcover

First published November 14, 1989

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Samuel Bowles is Research Professor and Director of the Behavioral Sciences Program at the Santa Fe Institute and Professor of Economics at the University of Siena. He is coauthor of Notes and Problems in Microeconomic Theory (North Holland Texts in Mathematical Economics) and Schooling in Capitalist America (Basic Books), and has published articles, most recently, in the American Economic Review, Nature, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Economic Journal, and the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

Reviews

[Punky Brewster · Rating 1 out of 5]

“The viewpoint that people need to distort reality in order to adjust successfully to it would seem to be quite cynical on the surface. I hope to convey exactly the opposite sentiment. … If all our minds did was to take in information as it actually exists and represent it faithfully, the chief task of a psychologist would be to function as a historian of mundane mental activity.”

No. If we stopped convincing ourselves of “positive illusions” we would be rational beings and the concentration on “maladaptiveness” in psychology would, thankfully, go away. We would no longer be told that we have to adapt to popular illusions. Psychology would, thankfully, go away. Historians, on the other hand, would continue contributing to humanity.