Abstract
People ordinarily operate on the basis of unquestioned assumptions about the self, the world and the future. These cognitive schemata describe the benign world or optimism about the future, the meaningful world and the self as worthy (cf., Epstein, 1990; Janoff-Bulman, 1979; Weinstein, 1980). They do not comprise exact descriptions of reality but rather positive misperceptions; therefore they are named by Taylor (e.g., 1989) as positive illusions. Taylor and Brown (1988) showed that this kind of illusions seems to be adaptive for mental health and well-being.
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Dalbert, C. (1998). Belief in a Just World, Well-Being, and Coping with an Unjust Fate. In: Montada, L., Lerner, M.J. (eds) Responses to Victimizations and Belief in a Just World. Critical Issues in Social Justice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6418-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6418-5_6
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