Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain

by Shankar Vedantam

In a survey of psychological work on the subject, they concluded that positive illusions were a necessary ingredient for mental health and psychological well-being: “A great deal of research in social, personality, clinical and developmental psychology documents that normal individuals possess unrealistically positive views of themselves, and exaggerated belief in their ability to control their environment, and a view of the future that maintains that their future will be far better than the average person’s . . . Furthermore, individuals who are moderately depressed or low in self-esteem consistently display an absence of such enhancing illusions.” The researchers concluded that the presence of positive illusions led to “higher income, higher motivation to work, more goal seeking, more pragmatic action, more daily planning and less fatalism.”