Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2009 - Volume 32, Issue 06  

Cambridge Journals Online - CUP Full-Text Page
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2009), 32:529-529 Cambridge University Press
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010
doi:10.1017/S0140525X09991452

Open Peer Commentary

10,000 Just so stories can't all be wrong

Gary F. Marcusa1

a1 Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10012. gary.marcus@nyu.edu http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gary/
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marcus gf [PubMed]  [Google Scholar]

Abstract

The mere fact that a particular aspect of mind could offer an adaptive advantage is not enough to show that that property was in fact shaped by that adaptive advantage. Although it is possible that the tendency towards positive illusion is an evolved misbelief, it it also possible that positive illusions could be a by-product of a broader, flawed cognitive mechanism that itself was shaped by accidents of evolutionary inertia.

The evolution of misbelief Ryan T. McKay and Daniel C. Dennett Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich 8006, Switzerland; and Centre for Anthropology and Mind, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PE, United Kingdom ryantmckay@mac.com http://homepage.mac.com/ryantmckay/; The Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155-7059 ddennett@tufts.edu http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/incbios/dennettd/dennettd.htm