Illusory

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(/ɪˈluːz(ə)ɹi/)
Adjective

1. Resulting from an illusion; deceptive, imaginary, unreal

… “In psychology it’s known as cognitive dissonance. It’s the idea that it feels stressful and painful for us to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time (like the idea that we’re kind people and the idea that we’ve just destroyed someone). And so to ease the pain we create illusory ways to justify our contradictory behavior. It’s like when I used to smoke and I’d hope the tobacconist would hand me the pack that read SMOKING CAUSES AGING OF THE SKIN instead of the pack that read SMOKING KILLS—because aging of the skin? I didn’t mind that.”

From the post: Vocabulary Words from ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’
Source: So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, by Jon Ronson (amazon.com)