Beliefs remain fundamental to our behavior and identity, but are not well understood. Delusions, on the other hand, are fixed, usually false, beliefs that are strongly held, but not widely shared. In ...

In a new book, former NPR reporter Shankar Vedantam suggests attaining "a deeper psychological understanding of why people believe what they... 'Useful Delusions' Examines How Beliefs Can Be Powerful ...

In my previous posts, readers learned about delusions both as a symptom and as a condition called delusional disorder. The latter is marked by the presence of delusions in the absence of other ...

Delusions—fixed false beliefs—can be tricky to study. And it's not yet clear how the brain gives rise to these departures from reality. Further, there are many types of delusions. Those with ...

A new study provides a novel theory for how delusions arise and why they persist. NYU Langone Medical Center researcher Orrin Devinsky, MD, performed an in-depth analysis of patients with certain ...

A delusion is a belief based on an inaccurate interpretation of reality, despite clear evidence to the contrary. A delusional disorder causes a person to have delusional thoughts for a prolonged ...

Multiple measures of decision-making under uncertainty (e.g. jumping to conclusions (JTC), bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE), win-switch behavior, random exploration) have been associated ...

People experiencing delusions during an episode of psychosis may be ‘living out’ a deeply held emotion, according to new research that provides a ‘radically different perspective’ on one of the most ...

Delusions of grandeur, also known as grandiose delusions (GDs), are a type of delusion, or false belief. People who experience delusions of grandeur may believe they are famous, God-like, wealthy, ...

Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain, by Shankar Vedantam and Bill Mesler A few years ago, former NPR journalist and Hidden Brain podcast host Shankar Vedantam became ...