Wishful Thinking Kaitlyn Kelley

What is it? Wishful thinking is when we accept or reject a claim just because it would be pleasant or unpleasant if it were not true. Simply put: We want it to be true, so therefore it is true

How is it different? No one influences your decision except for you Only our own hopes and desires lead us to think this way We aren’t persuaded by “pretend” support that comes from emotional and psychological arguments Anger and pity do not drive us Neither does blaming other people, or threatening them to think like us using their fear or envy

Example 1 from the book 6-1 #2 Overheard: “Hmmmm. Nice Day. Think I’ll go catch some rays.” “Says here in this magazine that doing that sort of thing is guaranteed to get you a case of skin cancer.” “Yeah, I’ve heard that, too. I think it’s a bunch of baloney, personally. If that were true you couldn’t do anything-no tubing, skiing, nothing. You wouldn’t even be able to just plain lie out in the sun. Ugh!” He wants to lay in the sun, even though he has been told that it guarantees that he would get skin cancer, he still wants to lay out so he refuses to believe that it is true.

Example 2 from the book 6-6 #3 Mother to father: “You know, I really believe that our third grader’s friend Joe comes from an impoverished family. He looks to me as though he doesn’t get enough to eat. I think I’m going to start inviting him to have dinner at our house once or twice a week. The dad sees a skinny third grader and believes that the kid is impoverished, without any other evidence that it could be true, therefore he will invite them to dinner 1-2 times a week.

Example 3 from the book 6-8 #9 Nellie: “I really don’t see anything special about Sunquist grapefruit. They taste the same as any other grapefruit to me.” Nellie’s mom: “Hardly! Don’t forget that your Uncle Henry owns Sunquist. If everyone buys his fruit, you may inherit a lot of money some day.” The mom thinks that the kid should eat the Uncles grapefruit instead of others, whether it tastes good or not because if he does then some day he will get money for it.