Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health

Taylor, Shelley E.; Brown, Jonathon D.

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.193

Cited by 7,814Optimism, Hope, and Well-beingPsychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionPersonality Traits and Psychology

Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health

Taylor, Shelley E., Brown, Jonathon D.·1988·Psychological Bulletin

DOI 10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.193

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Abstract

Many prominent theorists have argued that accurate perceptions of the self, the world, and the future are essential for mental health. Yet considerable research evidence suggests that overly positive selfevaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism are characteristic of normal human thought. Moreover, these illusions appear to promote other criteria of mental health, including the ability to care about others, the ability to be happy or contented, and the ability to engage in productive and creative work. These strategies may succeed, in large part, because both the social world and cognitive-processing mechanisms impose filters on incoming information that distort it in a positive direction; negative information may be isolated and represented in as unthreatening a manner as possible. These positive illusions may be especially useful when an individual receives negative feedback or is otherwise threatened and may be especially adaptive under these circumstances. Decades of psychological wisdom have established contact with reality as a hallmark of mental health. In this view, the wcU-adjusted person is thought to engage in accurate reality testing, whereas the individual whose vision is clouded by illusion is regarded as vulnerable to, if not already a victim of, mental illness. Despite its plausibility, this viewpoint is increasingly difficult to maintain (cf. Lazarus, 1983). A substantial amount of research testifies to the prevalence of illusion in normal human

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Healthy individuals have a preferential bias toward positive stimuli.
“Healthy individuals, in contrast, have a preferential bias toward positive stimuli (Gotlib et al., 2004; Reidy, 2004) that is associated with a wide range of adaptive qualities and greater well-being (Taylor and Brown, 1988; Scheier et al., 2001).”
From Mindfulness Training Alters Emotional Memory Recall Compared to Active Controls: Support for an Emotional Information Processing Model of Mindfulness (2012) · cites this paper as Taylor and Brown, 1988
Associations have been found between trait positivity biases and well-being in both cross-sectional and prospective studies.
“Associations have been found between trait positivity biases and well-being in both cross-sectional and prospective studies”
From Mindfulness Training Alters Emotional Memory Recall Compared to Active Controls: Support for an Emotional Information Processing Model of Mindfulness (2012) · cites this paper as Taylor and Brown, 1988
Positive self-concept is viewed as an essential component of mental health.
“Positive self-concept is viewed as an essential component of mental health (Taylor and Brown, 1988).”
From Self-concept, illness acceptance and depressive and anxiety symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis. (2021) · cites this paper as Taylor and Brown, 1988
The validity of retrospective recall on the more subtle aspects of family life and relationships has been found to be less than satisfactory.
“The validity of retrospective recall on the more subtle aspect of family life and relationships have been found to be less than satisfactory (Taylor and Brown, 1988).”
From A Systematic Review of “Helicopter Parenting” and Its Relationship With Anxiety and Depression (2022) · cites this paper as Taylor and Brown, 1988
Ability to self-enhance is a factor that promotes resiliency in the face of loss.
“One factor seems to be the ability to self-enhance”
From The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory (2006) · cites this paper as Taylor & Brown, 1988

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The Influence of Positive Affect on Decision-Making Strategy
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Breakups Before Marriage: The End of 103 Affairs
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Long-term adjustment to physical disability: The role of social support, perceived control, and self-blame.
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Attribution of responsibility and valence of success and failure in relation to initial confidence and task performance.
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On the self-erasing nature of errors of prediction.
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Impression management versus intrapsychic explanations in social psychology: A useful dichotomy?
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Managerial myopia: Self-serving biases in organizational planning.
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Theories of Learning
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The person-positivity bias.
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When our identities are mistaken: Reaffirming self-conceptions through social interaction.
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Quest for accuracy in person perception: A matter of pragmatics.
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The Self and Social Life.
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Self-deception: A concept in search of a phenomenon.
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Responses to evaluation as a function of initial self-perceptions.
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Interpersonal Perception: A Theory and a Method of Research
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Excuses: Masquerades in Search of Grace.
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The Optimal Margin of Illusion
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Acquiring self-knowledge: The search for feedback that fits.
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Social categorization and memory for in-group and out-group behavior.
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The function of the illusions of control and freedom.
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The Relativism of Absolute Judgments
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Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health
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Similarity and uniqueness: The effects of attribute type, relevance, and individual differences in self-esteem and depression.
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Ego involvement and attributions for success and failure.
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Effects of deliberative and implemental mind-sets on illusion of control.
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Impact of causal attributions on affective reactions to success and failure.
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Recall for confirming events: Memory processes and the maintenance of social stereotypes
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Personality characteristics as moderators of the relationship between stress and disorder.
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Depressed and nondepressed content self-reference in mild depressives
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Integrations of Clinical and Social Psychology
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The Reluctance to Transmit Bad News
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Depression, self-focused attention, and expectancies for positive and negative future life events for self and others.
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Depression and distortion in the attribution of causality.
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On causality, responsibility, and self-blame: A theoretical note.
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Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health
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Coping and Defending: Processes of Self-Environment Organization
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Environmental effects on interpersonal affective behavior: Ambient effective temperature and attraction.
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When actions reflect attitudes: The politics of impression management.
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Depression and pessimism for the future: Biased use of statistically relevant information in predictions for self versus others.
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Social comparison and depression: Company's effect on misery.
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Not can, but will college teaching be improved?
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Stated expectations as functions of probability and desirability of outcomes
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The vital balance
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Rewarding pinball wizardry: Effects of evaluation and cue value on intrinsic interest.
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Assortative mating with respect to physical characteristics
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Psychobiological Factors Predicting the Course of Breast Cancer
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Affect and altruism.
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Effects of prior success and failure on expectations of success and subsequent performance.
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Poor performance following unsolvable problems: Learned helplessness or egotism?
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Self‐esteem and responses to success and failure: Subsequent performance and intrinsic motivation
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Effects of self-esteem and performance feedback on future affective preferences and cognitive expectations.
McFarlin, D. B., & Blascovich, J. (1981) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.40.3.521 · Cited by 240 · see citing works
The political beliefs of Americans : a study of public opinion
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Optimism: The Biology of Hope
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THE EFFECT OF PROBABILITY, DESIRABILITY, AND "PRIVILEGE" ON THE STATED EXPECTATIONS OF CHILDREN*
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Induced mood and the illusion of control.
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Depression and causal attributions for success and failure.
Kuiper, N. A. (1978) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.36.3.236 · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Self-Identification: Toward an Integration of the Private and Public Self
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Influence of affect on cognitive social learning person variables.
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Induced affective states and interpersonal attraction.
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Effects of self-esteem, hypothetical explanations, and verbalization of expectancies on future performance.
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Self-Definition: The Impact of the Relative Performance and Similarity of Others
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Intimates as agents of social support: Sources of consolation or despair?
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The definition of self: Private and public self-evaluation management strategies.
Tesser, A., & Paulhus, D. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.44.4.672 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
The perception of self and others: Acquaintanceship, affect, and actor-observer differences.
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Self-citation
Self-Actualizing People: A Study of Psychological Health
Maslow, A. H. (1950) · Cited by 198 · see citing works
Self-deception, other-deception, and self-reported psychopathology.
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On knowing when to quit: Task failure, self‐esteem, advice, and nonproductive persistence
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Depression and internal versus external focus of attention
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Will therapy and Truth and reality
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Depression and self-focused attention
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The Illusion of Unique Invulnerability and the Use of Effective Contraception
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Public versus private expectancy of success: Confidence booster or performance pressure?
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Self-esteem and the effects of success and failure feedback on performance1
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Acceptance of personality interpretations: The "Barnum effect" and beyond.
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Communication of interpersonal evaluations.
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Attributed intentions and informational selectivity
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Self-esteem maintenance in family dynamics.
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Biased Questions in Judgment of Covariation Studies
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Self and Other Perception in Mild Depressives
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Desire for control and achievement-related behaviors.
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Nonconscious biasing effects of single instances on subsequent judgments.
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3 of the 285 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Sorted by citations

Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.
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Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.
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The structure of psychological well-being revisited.
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The emerging field of emotion regulation: an integrative review
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The case for motivated reasoning.
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Bad Is Stronger Than Good
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Human agency in social cognitive theory.
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The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?
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Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments
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The posttraumatic growth inventory: measuring the positive legacy of trauma
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Loss, trauma, and human resilience: have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?
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High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success
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The Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Self-Compassion
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TARGET ARTICLE: "Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence"
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Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research
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Investor Psychology and Security Market Under‐ and Overreactions
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Self-Compassion: An Alternative Conceptualization of a Healthy Attitude Toward Oneself
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Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate?
Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F. (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00003435 · Cited by 4,255 · see citing works
Self-Efficacy and Academic Motivation
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Boys will be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment
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Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression.
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Measurement and Control of Response Bias
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Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects
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The self-importance of moral identity
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Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma.
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Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change
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A Collective Self-Esteem Scale: Self-Evaluation of One’s Social Identity
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Measuring global self-esteem: construct validation of a single-item measure and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
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Initial trust formation in new organizational relationships
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The need for and meaning of positive organizational behavior
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WHEN EMPLOYEES FEEL BETRAYED: A MODEL OF HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT VIOLATION DEVELOPS
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Authors: Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D.
ORCID: Brown, Jonathon D.
Venue: Psychological Bulletin
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 1988
Volume: 103
Issue: 2
Pages: 193-210
ISSN: 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
1939-1455
DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.193
OpenAlex: W2171975196
Semantic Scholar: 3331a6d8daa55975dfab8e35f91b42157eb1a2e8
Cited by: 7,814
References: 285
Citations by year: 2026: 129 · 2025: 142 · 2024: 179 · 2023: 212 · 2022: 226 · 2021: 244 · 2020: 222 · 2019: 260 · 2018: 249 · 2017: 265 · 2016: 273 · 2015: 306 · 2014: 304 · 2013: 276 · 2012: 284
FWCI: 141.89
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Institute of Mental Health (MH 00311)
National Cancer Institute (CA-36409)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
Keywords: positive illusions, mental health, well-being, self-perception, optimism, perceived control, reality testing, cognitive distortions
MeSH terms: Adaptation, Psychological, Attitude to Health, Humans, Illusions, Reality Testing, Self Concept

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Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health

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