Fighting impeachment, former Governor Rod Blagojevich compared himself to Gandhi./NAM Y. HUH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

LENS


Rod R.Blagojevich, the disgraced former governor of Illinois, was caught on tape trying to‘‘sell’’President Obama’s old senate seat for a high price. Yet he recently compared himself to Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

In a seemingly bottomless Ponzi scheme, Bernard L.Madoff is accused of swindling legions of investors to the tune of $50 billion. Yet despite the epic scale of his fraud, and the inevitability of its collapse, some experts speculate that he may have had the psychopath’s belief that he was invincible.

Such people“believe,‘I’m above the law,’and they believe they cannot be caught,”J.Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist, told The Times’s Julie Creswell and Landon Thomas Jr.“But the Achilles’ heel of the psychopath is his sense of impunity.’’

Self-delusion is not limited to internationally notorious scoundrels, however. As several recent articles have noted, so-called normal people often engage in mental tricks, whether they are looking in the mirror, seeking a bit of extra motivation or warding off a crushing blow to the ego.

We can always put off that next bit of work or our exercise regime for another hour or another day, we convince ourselves. Or can we?

As Alina Tugend reported in The Times, most people procrastinate at some time or other. But those who believe they do their best work under the frantic pressure of a deadline may find that objective reality is not on their side.

“My research showed that they do not perform better,’’Joseph R.Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, told Ms.Tugend.“They just think they do.’’

Those very same procrastinators may find that they are fooling themselves if they rationalize purchasing another expensive home exercise machine is the painless way to achieve fitness, behavioral scientists caution.

“When you buy these machines, you probably end up focusing on one or two attributes, like how easy it is to use or having it in your home,’’Ravi Dhar, a professor of marketing and psychology at Yale University, told Tara Parker-Pope of The Times.“You’re not thinking about the barriers, what you’re giving up, like the time with friends or the Internet.’’

Those pesky behavioral scientists, taking away our delusions.

For instance, a psychologist explained to The Times’s Benedict Carey how many people“self-handicap,’’creating ready-made excuses for their poor performance or failure, even before they begin to pursue a goal.

“This is real self-sabotage, like drinking heavily before a test, skipping practice or using really poor equipment,’’the psychologist, Edward R.Hirt of Indiana University, told Mr.Carey.

And as Sean McCrea, another psychologist, at the University of Konstanz in Germany, added:“The handicap allowed them to say,‘All things considered, I actually did pretty well.’And there is no drive to get better.’’

Mr.Carey also wrote of people with two opposite delusions: the so-called“impostor phenomenon”in which people envision their successes as undeserved, and those who see their achievements as greater than they really are.

The“impostor phenonmenon”may lower expectations, to alleviate pressure, Rory O’Brien McElwee, of Rowan University in New Jersey, told Mr.Carey. But for those who inflate their achievements, Mr.Carey wrote that“self-serving delusion probably helps people to get out of bed and chase their pet projects.’’

Mr.Blagojevich of Illinois was no doubt self-serving. At his impeachment trial, he said in his own defense:“I did a lot of things that were mostly right.’’