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wishful thinking
Wishful thinking is interpreting facts, reports, events, perceptions, etc., according to what one would like to be the case rather than according to the actual evidence. If it is done intentionally and without regard for the truth, it is called misinterpretation, falsification, dissembling, disingenuous, or perversion of the truth.
See also ad hoc hypothesis, cold reading, communal reinforcement, confirmation bias, control study, Forer effect, Occam's razor, the placebo effect, the post hoc fallacy, selective thinking, self-deception, subjective validation, and testimonials.
further reading
books and articles
Fingarette, Henry. Self-Deception (University of California Press, 2000).
Kruger, Justin and David Dunning. "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology December 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6, 1121-1134.
Mele, Alfred R. Self-Deception Unmasked (Princeton University Press 2001).
Wiseman, Richard. Deception & Self-Deception: Investigating Psychics (Prometheus, 1997).
websites
Self-deception bibliography (from the Consciousness in the Natural World Project)
Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, Department of Psychology, Cornell University
Recommendations of the Commission on Professional Self Regulation in Science
Last updated 02/23/09

