Positive illusions revisited

Found additional research that bears on the support for positive illusions in well-adjusted people (to summarise: normal people - as opposed to depressed people, who exhibit a kind of "depressive realism" - overestimate their good qualities and successes; overestimate the amount of control they have; and are slightly more optimistic than reality would suggest is feasible). Gollwitzer and Kinney (1989) found that confidence is useful when behaviour is a matter of performance, but dangerous when behaviour involves making decisions. The reason for this is that during performance, confidence (positive illusions) has self-fulfilling prophecy effects which enhance the performance. During decision-making, however, confidence can be detrimental because it causes the individual to overcommit. Apparently the normal, well-adjusted individual is automatically able to switch from one frame of mind to the other, enabling or disabling positive illusions as necessary.