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A positive illusion about “positive illusions”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Vladimir J. Konečni
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109. vkonecni@ucsd.eduhttp://psychology.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/vkonecni.php

Abstract

Rather than being a genuine adaptation, “positive illusions” are examples of doxastically uncommitted policies implemented at both the individual and societal levels. Even when they are genuine misbeliefs, most positive illusions are not evolved but ephemeral – a phenomenon limited to a particular social and economic moment. They are essentially a consumer response to messages from the pop-psychology industry in the recently terminated era of easy credit.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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