[whack]

> Examined closely enough, optimism, confidence, and happiness are naught but delusion themselves.

I agree completely. The base human emotions are all prone to delusion, but have substantial effects on the human body. "Unjustified" confidence and optimism can still have a great impact on physiological health. However, "perceived physical activity" is such a hyper-specific and abstract thought, that it doesn't engage our reptilian brain the same way something like "confidence" would. Hence why I find the study's conclusion pretty surprising.

[perl4ever]

I think that the belief that confidence and optimism improve health can cause extreme pain even when well intentioned.

An example from my experience is when an oncologist lies about a terminal cancer patient being in remission in the belief that a false confidence will cause them to last longer.