Imagination frees us from the confines of our immediate reality. Imagining the future enables us to evaluate alternative paths forward, anticipate how we would feel if they happened, and choose which to pursue.

For instance, by simulating a potential event via mental i...

Counterfactual thinking (alternative versions of one’s personal past) refers to the comparison of reality to hypothetical alternatives (“what if I had made different choices”).

People create counterfactual alternatives to reality when they imagine how things would have turned out diffe...

Imagining events from a distance encourages abstract thinking that boosts creativity. After several years of experience, people start to repeat themselves; it becomes more of the same old approach. They become insiders.

One of the most effective ways of cultivating an outsider pers...

Any situation that affects our ability to visualize events and situations may affect our judgments. Visual images are more emotionally salient than words.

We recall emotionally charged events far more than mundane ones. However, this emotional partiality impairs our ab...

Imagination is central to understanding and interpreting figurative language. Metaphors are figures of speech to convey a truth about the real world. They are transferred from another context to give us new ways to think.

We can imaginatively see a particular perspecti...

Delusions and ordinary cases of self-deception have been characterized as disorders of imagination.

Delusions can be characterized as beliefs that are dysfunctional in their content or formation. That is, a delusion is an imagined interpretation that is mistaken by the sub...

Imagination is deeply connected with reality. What we imagine can affect what we believe and vice versa. The richer the personal experience is, the richer the ingredients for imagining.

That is, imagination is nourished by various resources on which the person can draw. Th...