A lot of people do delude themselves in many ways, and some directly in many of the ways you describe.
However, I doubt that human brains work literally in terms of nothing but reward reinforcement. There may well be a core of something akin to that, but mixed in with all the usual hacks and kludges that evolved systems have.
I was thinking about delusions like “I literally anticipate-believe that there is a stack of cash in the corner of the room.” I agree that people do delude themselves, but my impression is that mentally healthy people do not anticipation-level delude themselves on nearby physical observables which they have lots of info about.
A lot of people do delude themselves in many ways, and some directly in many of the ways you describe.
However, I doubt that human brains work literally in terms of nothing but reward reinforcement. There may well be a core of something akin to that, but mixed in with all the usual hacks and kludges that evolved systems have.
I was thinking about delusions like “I literally anticipate-believe that there is a stack of cash in the corner of the room.” I agree that people do delude themselves, but my impression is that mentally healthy people do not anticipation-level delude themselves on nearby physical observables which they have lots of info about.
I could be wrong about that, though?