I don't think confuse is the right word. Confuse implies a mistake. I don't think we mistakenly perceive the abstract as real, just that the human body can react to the abstract as real. The brain processing the information produces a bodily reaction that is unneccesary, which I guess could be considered a mistake, but that doesn't imply that the brain is confused. In fact the brain can can both fool the body while being conciously aware of what is fooling the body. I think the lecture kind of touches on that.

I think I interpreted this differently. My final thoughts were that it's almost that what seperates us from chimps is the ability to believe in what isn't but what might be, or perhaps the ability to dream and imagine and then to chase our dreams.