WISHFUL THINKING AND SELF-DECEPTION

Wishful Thinking and Self-Deception

Wishful Thinking and Self-Deception

Self-Deception

Self-deception refers to a way in which a person deceive him or herself in order to accept what is false does not exist as real. It is also defined as a way in which people justify their false beliefs. This tends to occur with changing degrees of being aware about the process. The other face of self-deception is either ignoring or denying the importance or relevance of argument and evidence that is opposite to the preferred vision the world and the people living in it (Johnson, 1991) (Galotti, 1989).

For example: People tend to ignore chest pains and convince themselves that everything is fine even if the symptoms of heart disease are diagnose, they still tend to ignore it. Self-deception is considered to be a barrier to lead an ethical and an authentic. Since the ancient times, philosophers have promoted self deception in order to make the people aware of it (Galotti, 1989).

The cases of self deception are usually those that comprise of strong psychological forces which protects a person from admitting a truth that is threatening to them. The role of self deception in the social psychology must not be over estimated. This concept of self deception is necessary to the humans in order to balance their motivations. Every human being requires information that is accurate about the complexity of the world. They also require opposing the information that might destroy their ideas on which their lives are built (Galotti, 1989).

The concept of self deception does not only mean that a person is mistaken about his/ her own self. A person may be in correct about numerous aspects of his/her life. Most of the aspects of a human's life are not due to self deception. For example: If a person is told that he/she is adopted, in that case, they would purposely deceive themselves (Johnson-Laird, 1991).

Wishful Thinking

Wishful thinking can be defined as the shaping of beliefs and taking decisions according to what could be delighting to imagine rather than providing appealing evidence that is rational or based on reality. Various studies consistently depict that if every other factor is kept equal. Subjects would generate positive outcomes more than the negative outcomes (Johnson, 1991) (Johnson-Laird, 1991).

Wishful thinking is considered to be a poor way through which decisions are made and is biased on the basis of human cognition. It is assumed ...