Positive Illusions from the Perspective of Anthropology and Evolutionary Psychology

Positive illusions have been explained either through the limited functions of the cognitive system or through the egocentric construction of memory and attention. We argue that the function of positive illusions can be better understood by integrating them in the process responsible for forming the cognitive anthropological architecture and some specific problems to which we have had to find solutions throughout our evolution. The purpose of this study is to offer some original explanations to the question “for what reason and in which way positive illusions occurred” and to analyze illusions from a theoretical perspective in which the anthropological, biological, psychological and social models could be possibly integrated.

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