Thomas Szasz argued that mental illnesses are (often deceptive) social strategies. Using concepts from evolutionary biology, I investigate whether non-bizarre delusions might be a form of strategic deception. Non-bizarre delusions comprise a small number of themes, including grandiose, paranoid, and somatic. If, hypothetically, delusions were believed by friends and family members, delusional individuals would likely receive important benefits, such as increased social status and respect (in the case of grandiose delusions), increased protection (in the case of paranoid delusions), or increased care and assistance (in the case of somatic delusions).
There is considerable evidence that severe social problems are an important cause of non-bizarre delusions. Moreover, in many cultures and sub-cultures, delusional individuals are believed by friends and family members and, hence, receive many benefits. The possibility therefore exists that delusions evolved to mitigate the dangerous consequences of social failure by serving to unconsciously deceive others into providing social benefits that otherwise would not be forthcoming.
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3.4.2 Defense
Belief that there is an external threat provides a very strong impetus for cooperation among humans [e.g., 72], and it has been argued that external threats were a significant selection pressure for the initial evolution of cooperation among hominids [73]. Because a high level of within-group cooperation among a large number of individuals is essential to successful defense, external threats provide an extremely strong incentive to suppress internal political conflicts. Further, in the face of an external threat, each healthy group member has considerable value to other group members as a defender. Group members should readily cooperate against possible external threats because the costs of responding to a false threat are lower than the costs of not responding to a real threat. Deceptive claims of external threats should therefore elicit social benefits by reducing internal political conflicts that might threaten those with few allies, and by increasing one’s social value as a provider of important information about enemies, and as a defender.
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