There are a few different kinds of beneficial false beliefs:
1) unfalsifiable beliefs—it can feel better to believe some things which literally don’t matter in the current universe. Galacticus, presuming he doesn’t actually visit or have any causal interaction with earth, is irrelevant. It’s not really a belief in the classic sense, it’s more of a preference about stories.
2) falsehoods that cancel out other errors. Undue optimism in some parts of life might let you take risks that are good risks, but your pessimism and self-doubt in other parts would make you miss out on. You’d be better off with correct predictions and unbiased evaluation of possible outcomes, but most humans can’t do this, so counter-bias biases can serve well.
There are a few different kinds of beneficial false beliefs:
1) unfalsifiable beliefs—it can feel better to believe some things which literally don’t matter in the current universe. Galacticus, presuming he doesn’t actually visit or have any causal interaction with earth, is irrelevant. It’s not really a belief in the classic sense, it’s more of a preference about stories.
2) falsehoods that cancel out other errors. Undue optimism in some parts of life might let you take risks that are good risks, but your pessimism and self-doubt in other parts would make you miss out on. You’d be better off with correct predictions and unbiased evaluation of possible outcomes, but most humans can’t do this, so counter-bias biases can serve well.