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Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1989, pp. 176-189
ROY F. BAUMEISTER
Case Western Reserve University
This article proposes that optimal psychological functioning is associated with a
slight to moderate degree of distortion in one's perception of self and world. Past evidence suggests that substantial distortions provide a dangerous basis for action, yet recent research has shown that highly accurate perceptions are associated with
depression and other maladaptive patterns. By seeing things as only slightly better
than they really are, the individual may enjoy the affective benefits of illusions while
avoiding the pragmatic, behavioral risks of acting on false assumptions. Departures
from this optimal margin of illusion are associated with risks and difficulties, and power hierarchies may be an important arena for studying these problems.
Recent work has provided conflicting views about the value of illusions.
Some evidence has supported the traditional view that seeing the world,
or the self, in a distorted fashion is a sign of mental illness and a prescription
for suffering and disaster. Other evidence has indicated the opposite:
that normal, healthy, well-adjusted people systematically distort their
views of self and world, and they derive important benefits from doing
so. This article will argue that there is merit in both views, and that the best resolution is to say that there is an optimal margin of illusion at which people are happiest, function best, and so forth. Further, it will argue that increasing one's margin of illusion that is, increasing the degree
to which one distorts one's perception of reality from this optimal level produces one sort of problem, while decreasing it (as in seeing the world
too accurately) produces a different sort of problem.
In this article, illusions are conceptualized as exaggerations in the positivity of self-perception. One's true abilities and capacities can be regarded as having a certain measurable quantity, such as an IQ score.
The margin of illusion is the extent to which the person subjectively
increases that quantity, such as the degree to which people recall their
IQ scores as being higher than they actually are. A small or negligible
A preliminary version of this material presented to the American Psychological As
sociation in August, 1988, in Atlanta, Georgia. Requests for reprints should...