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The costs and benefits of positive illusions

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Psychology, June 2015
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

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8 news outlets
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26 X users
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1 Facebook page
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2 Google+ users

Citations

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34 Dimensions

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62 Mendeley
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Title
The costs and benefits of positive illusions
Published in
Frontiers in Psychology, June 2015
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00859
Pubmed ID
Authors

Spyros Makridakis, Andreas Moleskis

Abstract

Positive illusions are associated with unrealistic optimism about the future and an inflated assessment of one's abilities. They are prevalent in normal life and are considered essential for maintaining a healthy mental state, although, there are disagreements to the extent to which people demonstrate these positive illusions and whether they are beneficial or not. But whatever the situation, it is hard to dismiss their existence and their positive and/or negative influence on human behavior and decision making in general. Prominent among illusions is that of control, that is "the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events." This paper describes positive illusions, their potential benefits but also quantifies their costs in five specific fields (gambling, stock and other markets, new firms and startups, preventive medicine and wars). It is organized into three parts. First the psychological reasons giving rise to positive illusions are described and their likely harm and benefits stated. Second, their negative consequences are presented and their costs are quantified in five areas seriously affected with emphasis to those related to the illusion of control that seems to dominate those of unrealistic optimism. The costs involved are huge and serious efforts must be undertaken to understand their enormity and steps taken to avoid them in the future. Finally, there is a concluding section where the challenges related to positive illusions are noted and directions for future research are presented.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 26 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 62 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 2%
France 1 2%
Unknown 60 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 12 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 8 13%
Student > Master 8 13%
Lecturer 5 8%
Professor 5 8%
Other 11 18%
Unknown 13 21%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 20 32%
Business, Management and Accounting 7 11%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 6 10%
Engineering 3 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 2 3%
Other 6 10%
Unknown 18 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 85. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 September 2023.
All research outputs
#506,291
of 25,545,162 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Psychology
#1,040
of 34,622 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,453
of 277,579 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Psychology
#23
of 561 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,545,162 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 34,622 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 277,579 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 561 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.