
Positive thinking's negative results - pj
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13815141
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msluyter
This seems to reiterate an argument I once read against positive affirmations
(no longer recall the source). The idea is that every time you consciously
make an affirmation, your subconscious corrects it, as in:

I am an outgoing person. \- _no, I'm not._

I am an outgoing person. \- _no, I'm not._

I am an outgoing person. \- _no, I'm not._

The subconscious wins, and what actually gets affirmed is that you're not an
outgoing person. This article seems to suggest that this effect primarily
occurs when the affirmation is sufficiently different from one's self image.
(But do we generally need to affirm things we already believe?)

~~~
stavrianos
I imagine there's a significant border-zone where the affirmation doesn't fire
a reactionary denial, and so probably successfully reinforces itself and
becomes truer.

~~~
zackattack
Indeed, this is what I was thinking. Perhaps the key is to successively (and
slowly) converge on the positive.

~~~
talvisota
I don't believe that to be the case. Our temperaments are quite hard-wired in
our brains.

IMO a better approach is to:

\- honestly learn about oneself, including the sides one or others might deem
negative

\- accept oneself as such

\- learn to balance things in life so that one's personality fits best amongst
them

This way for example an intravert person can push their "outgoing side" a bit
when it's needed, charging their batteries while that's not necessary, and
make most of their lives doing something where solitary is a benefit.

When the everyday experience is positive, the personality tends to shift
towards positive. But that is not because of telling oneself "I can do it, I
can do it" but because of the daily experience simply indicates success.

Another example might be a person who wants to start a business. While one
might benefit by "just doing it" and smashing obstacles one by one, another
one might benefit most by making a careful study before doing the "move".
Neither of these persons probably don't perform optimally (who of us does?),
since the first one doesn't think enough before acting, and the other thinks
too far. But for both of them, their approach is the most benefical, since in
both cases their _confidence_ to what they are doing rises the most, and on a
realistic basis.

~~~
zackattack
"Our temperaments are quite hard-wired in our brains"

Yeah, but the wiring can be changed. I used to be introverted; now I'm quite
extroverted. I slowly changed.

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pie
Worthwhile for the image and caption alone.

This reminds me: I'm a bit tired of quick reactionary articles in the news
that come in response to relatively minor sociological, psychological, or
medical studies. These new developments are indeed interesting, but they're
often treated as factual rather than small nuggets of scientific exploration.

In this case, anyway, I'm glad that The Economist maintains a reasonable
perspective, that this is a single limited study conducted by an individual as
opposed to new, dazzling, irrefutable Facts.

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tokenadult
Note that the affirmations practice doubted in the submitted article, based on
"self-esteem," is distinct from the Three Good Things exercise developed by
Martin E. P. Seligman.

<http://www.cabinetgirls.com/Three_Good_Things_Exercise.pdf>

[http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/jen-
hausmann/20070403...](http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/jen-
hausmann/20070403191)

Seligman has done considerable research on the development of "optimism," a
distinct concept from self-esteem, and as former president of the American
Psychological Association has done much to champion the "positive psychology"
movement, a research-based look at how well-functioning individuals function
well, and how all of us can learn to function better in the stress of daily
life. Seligman would be the first to decry most school "self-esteem" programs
--youth suicide rates went up rather than down during the decades when those
were implemented--but he thinks there is a research base to show that
improvement of optimism reduces depression and suicide and builds problem-
solving ability.

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quizbiz
Try adding "because..." after the "I am...".

~~~
andreyf
For those who haven't read Cialdini [1], this is a refernce to a study which
shows that asking:

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?"

lets you cut the line 60% of the time, but

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to
make some copies?"

Lets you cut the line 93% of the time. A more extensive quote from the book is
[2]. To me, the latter just sounds a little more polite.

1\. <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006124189X/>

2\. <http://www.hodu.com/one-word.shtml>

~~~
jonsen
Please up vote me, because I would feel much better with a higher karma.

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mshafrir
Conclusion from the article:

"Dr Wood suggests that positive self-statements cause negative moods in people
with low self-esteem because they conflict with those people’s views of
themselves. When positive self-statements strongly conflict with self-
perception, she argues, there is not mere resistance but a reinforcing of
self-perception. People who view themselves as unlovable find saying that they
are so unbelievable that it strengthens their own negative view rather than
reversing it. Given that many readers of self-help books that encourage
positive self-statements are likely to suffer from low self-esteem, they may
be worse than useless."

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kamo
I find to avoid the negative reaction, you can use "becoming". Instead of
saying "I'm a lovable person" use "I'm becoming a lovable person"

And also instead of using adjectives, use something that goes for identity,
instead of, "I'm becoming charming" use "I'm becoming a charmer"

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dejb
The only valid conclusion to be drawn out of this 'study' is that push polling
works. If you get people to affirm a view and then you ask then a logically
related question they are likely to bend the answer to be logically consistent
with the first statement. For them to go on and try correlate these results
with a 'past study' stretches things beyond dubious.

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ekanes
This is an interesting data point, however one key factor in repeating
positive affirmations is the repetition.

I'm not sure you can discredit the idea with a one-time test like this. It's
kind of like getting a bunch of people to do push-ups once, and trying to draw
some conclusion about strength training.

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10ren
Perhaps choosing affirmations that are believable in terms of the specific
person's self image would show mood increases. e.g.

 _I'm not all bad and if I could find love once, there's a real chance I can
find it again._

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DanielBMarkham
Wasn't it Freud who proposed that depressed people are actually quite
perceptive: they simply realize how bad things are for them?

This seems to be in the same vein. If you have low self-esteem, you know you
suck, and no amount of telling yourself otherwise is going to change that.

I believe the theory of cognitive therapy relies on repeated instances of
self-reinforcement, not just saying happy thoughts when somebody rings a bell.

What is it with psych studies and bell-ringing, anyway? Get a buzzer or a
blinking light or something already.

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c00p3r
It is old as a dirt - "People see what they want to see" - but reality is
always different and it destroys delusions and brings pain.

The "solution" also comes from begining of the time - "be selfless", just do
one thing at a time (leave anything else, including self-estim aside for this
period of time) and do it well, or "just do it".

