Illusions, in general, are considered harmful, so much so that a noted thinker Thomas Jefferson said, "It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong”. But some illusions prove to be beneficial to well-being of humans. For this reason, these are called positive illusions. For example, a person in grave danger may have a wrong belief of overcoming the threat and fights against it with a super-strength and may overcome that. Another person under the same condition may have a right belief of his/her inability to win over the threat and shall perish surely.
A positive illusion may be defined as unrealistically positive views about oneself, unrealistically positive optimism towards the future, and unrealistic views of personal control. Test of an illusion being positive is that it must be adaptive to well-being or survival of human life through providing to the person a sense of meaning, a sense of mastery, and a positive view about the self.
Positive views including positive illusions have a direct positive psychological impact on the person making him/her less prone to stresses of life and producing lower amount of stress-related hormone called cortisol in the brain of the person. This, in turn, induces physical well-being in the person making him/her happier and healthier. With a positive illusion, the feeling of being well may be short-lived if a real solution to the problem is not adopted. But the illusion surely provides a relief period to the person.
This does not in any way means that a misconceived optimism can overcome all the realistic problems of life which definitely need finding realistic solutions. Of course, optimism may help the person in finding a better solution than that found under conditions of stress and anxiety. A positive illusion relieves the brain from undesirable anxieties making it congenial for a cool thinking on a right solution.
In some situations, a positive illusion may prove harmful. Consider, for example, the positive illusion of smoking cigarettes not being harmful to their health, shall promote smoking habits in the person, family and society, and this is going to prove surely suicidal to the whole society. In some cases, even an unrealistic misbelief may prove beneficial. A woman's misbelief that her husband has little interest in romantic interactions between them, may force the husband to spend more time and other resources to please the wife to make her romantic, which in turn stabilizes their relationship. In some cases, even such a misbelief in the wife may turn off the romantic mood of the husband, thus putting the relationship in danger. Thus misbelifs, misunderstandings and self-deceptions are also important parts of our lives playing adaptive roles in some cases.
A positive illusion may be defined as unrealistically positive views about oneself, unrealistically positive optimism towards the future, and unrealistic views of personal control. Test of an illusion being positive is that it must be adaptive to well-being or survival of human life through providing to the person a sense of meaning, a sense of mastery, and a positive view about the self.
Positive views including positive illusions have a direct positive psychological impact on the person making him/her less prone to stresses of life and producing lower amount of stress-related hormone called cortisol in the brain of the person. This, in turn, induces physical well-being in the person making him/her happier and healthier. With a positive illusion, the feeling of being well may be short-lived if a real solution to the problem is not adopted. But the illusion surely provides a relief period to the person.
This does not in any way means that a misconceived optimism can overcome all the realistic problems of life which definitely need finding realistic solutions. Of course, optimism may help the person in finding a better solution than that found under conditions of stress and anxiety. A positive illusion relieves the brain from undesirable anxieties making it congenial for a cool thinking on a right solution.
In some situations, a positive illusion may prove harmful. Consider, for example, the positive illusion of smoking cigarettes not being harmful to their health, shall promote smoking habits in the person, family and society, and this is going to prove surely suicidal to the whole society. In some cases, even an unrealistic misbelief may prove beneficial. A woman's misbelief that her husband has little interest in romantic interactions between them, may force the husband to spend more time and other resources to please the wife to make her romantic, which in turn stabilizes their relationship. In some cases, even such a misbelief in the wife may turn off the romantic mood of the husband, thus putting the relationship in danger. Thus misbelifs, misunderstandings and self-deceptions are also important parts of our lives playing adaptive roles in some cases.
