Positive illusion Positive illusions are unrealistically favorable attitudes

Positive illusion • Positive illusions are unrealistically favorable attitudes that people have towards themselves or to people that are close to them. Positive illusions are a form of selfdeception or self-enhancement that feel good, maintain self-esteem or avoid discomfort, at least in the short term.

Self decption and enhancement • denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. • is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about themselves. A few examples include exaggerating one's virtues, claiming that one's successes are a reflection of ability whereas failures are due to external circumstances, or preferentially remembering positive rather than negative information about oneself

Types of positive illusion • there are three general forms: inflated assessment of one's own abilities, unrealistic optimism about the future, and an illusion of control. • the term "positive illusions" originates in a 1988 paper by Taylor and Brown's (1988) model of mental health maintains that certain positive illusions are highly prevalent in normal thought and predictive of criteria traditionally associated with mental health.

inflated assessment of one's own abilities • is a condition of cognitive bias wherein a person overestimates their own qualities and abilities, in relation to the same qualities and abilities of other people. Illusory superiority is one of many positive illusions, relating to the self, that are evident in the study of intelligence, the effective performance of tasks and tests, and the possession of desirable personal characteristics and personality traits.

Cognitive bias • A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that affects the decisions and judgments that people make. Some of these biases are related to memory. The way you remember an event may be biased for a number of reasons and that in turn can lead to biased thinking and decision-making. • E. g. choosing to bunk class because your friends were also bunking class.

Optimism bias • Optimism bias is a cognitive bias that causes someone to believe that they themselves are less likely to experience a negative event. It is also known as unrealistic optimism. Optimistic biases are even reported in non-human animals such as rats and birds • E. g. smokers believing that they are less likely to contract lung cancer or disease than other smokers • Like corona virus

continue • people believing that they are less at risk of being a crime victim • Share your own optimistic biases

Illusion • Misperception of real external stimulus • Most likely to occur when general law of sensory stimulation (consciousness) is reduces • E. g. muller lyer illusion • Basically illusion is caused by outside influenced and dellusion by inside feelings

Illusion of control • is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events; for example, it occurs when someone feels a sense of control over outcomes. • E. g. The illusion is more common in familiar situations, and in situations where the person knows the desired outcome

continue • At times, people attempt to gain control by transferring responsibility to more capable or “luckier” others to act for them

Interesting story • In another real-world example, in the 2002 Olympics men's and women's hockey finals, Team Canada beat Team USA but it was later believed that the win was the result of the luck of a Canadian coin that was secretly placed under the ice before the game. The members of Team Canada were the only people who knew the coin had been placed there. The coin was later put in the Hockey Hall of Fame where there was an opening so people could touch it. People believed they could transfer luck from the coin to themselves by touching it, and thereby change their own luck.

outcomes • The illusions may have direct health benefits by helping the person cope with stress, or by promoting work towards success. On the other hand, unrealistically positive expectations may prevent people from taking sensible preventive action for medical risks. Research in 2001 provided evidence that people who have positive illusions may have both short term benefits and long term costs. Specifically, self-enhancement is not correlated with academic success or graduation rates in college.

• Positive illusions have been linked with decreasing levels of self-esteem and wellbeing, as well as narcissism and lower academic achievement among students. [41]

playfulness • Playfulness is defined as “the predisposition (tendency to suffer from a particular condition, hold a particular attitude, or act in a particular way. e. g. she has inherited a predisposition to depression)to frame (or reframe) a situation in such a way as to provide oneself (and possibly others) with amusement, humor, and/or entertainment”

playfulness • it is argued that playfulness can contribute to healthy aging, e. g. , via its relations to positive emotions, well-being, intrinsic life goals, or coping with stress