self help_ try positive action, not positive thinking _ science _ the observer

Upload: sathyanand-swaminathan

Post on 05-Aug-2016

9 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • Search

    For years self-help gurus have preached the same simple mantra: if you want to

    improve your life then you need to change how you think. Force yourself to have

    positive thoughts and you will become happier. Visualise your dream self and you will

    enjoy increased success. Think like a millionaire and you will magically grow rich. In

    principle, this idea sounds perfectly reasonable. However, in practice it often proves

    ineffective.

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing

    to our use of cookies. Find out more here

    Self help: forget positive thinking, trypositive actionThe self-help industry is mired in ideas about positive thinking that

    are at best ineffective and at worst destructive. If you want to be

    more confident or successful, says Richard Wiseman, the best

    thing to do is act the part

    Richard WisemanThe Observ er, Saturday 30 June 201 2 22.40 BST

  • Take visualisation. Hundreds of self-improvement books

    encourage readers to close their eyes and imagine their perfect

    selves; to see themselves in a huge office at the top of the

    corporate ladder, or sipping a cocktail as they feel the warm

    Caribbean sand between their toes. Unfortunately, research

    suggests this technique does not work.

    In one study led by Lien Pham at the University of California,

    students were asked to spend a few moments each day visualising

    themselves getting a high grade in an upcoming exam. Even

    though the daydreaming exercise only lasted a few minutes, it

    caused the students to study less and obtain lower marks. In

    another experiment led by Gabriele Oettingen from New York

    University, graduates were asked to note down how often they

    fantasised about getting their dream job after leaving college. The

    students who reported that they frequently fantasised about such

    success received fewer job offers and ended up with significantly

    smaller salaries.

    Why should this be so? Maybe those who fantasise about a

    wonderful life are ill-prepared for setbacks, or become reluctant

    to put in the effort required to achieve their goal. Either way, the

    message is clear imagining the perfect you is not good for your life.

    However, when it comes to change, the message is not all gloom and doom. Decades of

    research show that there is indeed a simple but highly effective way to transform how

    you think and feel. The technique turns common sense on its head but is grounded in

    science. Strangely, the story begins with a world-renowned Victorian thinker and an

    imaginary bear.

    Working at Harvard University in the late 19th century, William James, brother of the

    novelist Henry James, was attracted to the unconventional, often walking around

    campus sporting a silk hat and red-checked trousers, and describing his theories using

    amusing prose ("As long as one poor cockroach feels the pangs of unrequited love, this

    world is not a moral world"). This unconventional approach paid off. First published in

    1890, James's two-volume magnum opus The Principles of Psychology is still required

    reading for students of behavioural science.

    Towards the end of the 1880s, James turned his attention to the relationship between

    emotion and behaviour. Our everyday experience tells us that your emotions cause you

    Rip It Up: Theradically newapproach tochanging your life:The Simple IdeaThat ChangesEverythingby Prof. RichardWiseman

    Buy the book

    Tell us what youthink: Star-rate andrev iew this book

  • to behave in certain ways. Feeling happy makes you smile, and feeling sad makes you

    frown. Case closed, mystery solved. However, James became convinced that this

    commonsense view was incomplete and proposed a radical new theory.

    James hypothesised that the relationship between emotion and behaviour was a two-

    way street, and that behaviour can cause emotion. According to James, smiling can make

    you feel happy and frowning can make you feel sad. Or, to use James's favourite way of

    putting it: "You do not run from a bear because you are afraid of it, but rather become

    afraid of the bear because you run from it."

    James's theory was quickly relegated to the filing drawer marked "years ahead of its

    time", and there it lay for more than six decades.

    Throughout that time many self-help gurus promoted ideas that were in line with

    people's everyday experiences about the human mind. Common sense tells us that

    emotions come before behaviour, and so decades of self-help books told readers to focus

    on trying to change the way they thought rather than the way they behaved. James's

    theory simply didn't get a look-in.

    However in the 70s psychologist James Laird from Clark University decided to put

    James's theory to the test. Volunteers were invited into the laboratory and asked to

    adopt certain facial expressions. To create an angry expression participants were asked

    to draw down their eyebrows and clench their teeth. For the happy expression they

    were asked to draw back the corners of the mouth. The results were remarkable.

    Exactly as predicted by James years before, the participants felt significantly happier

    when they forced their faces into smiles, and much angrier when they were clenching

    their teeth.

    Subsequent research has shown that the same effect applies to almost all aspects of our

    everyday lives. By acting as if you are a certain type of person, you become that person

    what I call the "As If" principle.

    Take, for example, willpower. Motivated people tense their muscles as they get ready to

    spring into action. But can you boost your willpower by simply tensing your muscles?

    Studies led by Iris Hung from the National University of Singapore had volunteers visit a

    local cafeteria and asked them to try to avoid temptation and not buy sugary snacks.

    Some of the volunteers were asked to make their hand into a fist or contract their

    biceps, and thus behave as if they were more motivated. Amazingly, this simple exercise

    made people far more likely to buy healthy food.

    The same applies to confidence. Most books on increasing confidence encourage readers

  • to focus on instances in their life when they have done well or ask them to visualise

    themselves being more assertive. In contrast, the As If principle suggests that it would

    be much more effective to simply ask people to change their behaviour.

    Dana Carney, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, led a study where she

    split volunteers into two groups. The people in one group were placed into power poses.

    Some were seated at desks, asked to put their feet up on the table, look up, and interlock

    their hands behind the back of their heads. In contrast, those in the other group were

    asked to adopt poses that weren't associated with dominance. Some of these participants

    were asked to place their feet on the floor, with hands in their laps and look at the

    ground. Just one minute of dominant posing provided a real boost in confidence.

    The researchers then turned their attention to the chemicals coursing through the

    volunteers' veins. Those power posing had significantly higher levels of testosterone,

    proving that the poses had changed the chemical make-up of their bodies.

    The As If principle can even make you feel younger. Harvard psychology professor Ellen

    Langer has conducted many high-profile experiments; one of her most striking involved

    using the As If principle to turn back the hands of time.

    In 1979 Langer recruited a group of men in their 70s for a "week of reminiscence" at a

    retreat outside Boston. Before the study started, Langer tested the men's strength,

    posture, eyesight and memory.

    She then encouraged the men to act as if they were 20 years younger. When they

    arrived at the retreat, for instance, there was no one there to help them off the bus and

    they had to carry their suitcases inside. In addition, the retreat had not been not

    equipped with the type of rails and other movement aids they had at home. After

    unpacking, everyone was assembled in the main room of the retreat. Surrounded by

    various objects from the 50s, including a black-and-white television and a vintage radio,

    Langer informed the participants that for the next few days all of their conversations

    about the past had to be in the present tense, and that no conversation must mention

    anything that happened after 1959.

    Within days, Langer could see the dramatic effect of behaving As If. The participants

    were now walking faster and were more confident. Within a week several of the

    participants had decided that they could now manage without their walking sticks.

    Langer took various psychological and physiological measurements throughout the

    experiment and discovered that the group now showed improvements in dexterity,

    speed of movement, memory, blood pressure, eyesight and hearing. Acting as if they

  • were young men had knocked years off their bodies and minds.

    More than a century ago William James proposed a radically different approach to

    change. Decades of research has shown that his theory applies to almost every aspect of

    everyday life, and can be used to help people feel happier, avoid anxiety and worry, fall

    in love and live happily ever after, stay slim, increase their willpower and confidence,

    and even slow the effects of ageing.

    So sit up straight and take a deep breath. It is time to rip up the rule book and embrace

    the truth about change.

    How to change

    Action speaks loudest

    Here are 10 quick and effective exercises that use the As If principle to

    transform how you think and behave.

    HAPPINESS: Smile

    This is the granddaddy of them all. As Laird's study demonstrated, smile and you will

    feel happier. To get the most out of this exercise, make the smile as wide as possible,

    extend your eyebrow muscles slightly upward, and hold the resulting expression for

    about 20 seconds.

    WILLPOWER: Tense up

    As Hung's experiments show, tensing your muscles boosts your willpower. Next time

    you feel the need to avoid that cigarette or cream cake, make a fist, contract your biceps,

    press your thumb and first finger together, or grip a pen in your hand.

    DIETING: Use your non-dominant hand

    When you eat with your non-dominant hand you are acting as if you are carrying out an

    unusual behaviour. Because of that you place more attention on your action, do not

    simply consume food without thinking about it, and so eat less.

    PROCRASTINATION: Make a start

    To overcome procrastination, act as if you are interested in what it is that you have to

    do. Spend just a few minutes carrying out the first part of whatever it is you are

    avoiding, and suddenly you will feel a strong need to complete the task.

  • PERSISTENCE: Sit up straight and cross your arms

    Ron Friedman from the University of Rochester led a study where volunteers were

    presented with tricky problems to see how long they persevered. Those who sat up

    straight and folded their arms struggled on for nearly twice as long as others. Make sure

    your computer monitor is slightly above your eye-line and, when the going gets tough,

    cross your arms.

    CONFIDENCE: Power pose

    To increase your self-esteem and confidence, adopt a power pose. If you are sitting

    down, lean back, look up and interlock your hands behind your head. If you are standing

    up, then place your feet flat on the floor, push your shoulders back and your chest

    forward.

    NEGOTIATION: Use soft chairs

    Hard furniture is associated with hard behaviour. In one study Joshua Ackerman at the

    MIT Sloan School of Management had participants sit on either soft or hard chairs and

    then negotiate over the price of a used car. Those in the hard chairs offered less and

    were more inflexible.

    GUILT: Wash away your sins

    If you are feeling guilty about something, try washing your hands or taking a shower.

    Chen-Bo Zhong from the University of Toronto discovered that people who carried out

    an immoral act and then cleaned their hands with an antiseptic wipe felt significantly less

    guilty than others.

    PERSUASION: Nod

    If people nod while they listen to a discussion they are more likely to agree with the

    points being made. When you want to encourage someone to agree with you, subtly nod

    your head as you chat with them. Research led by Gary Wells of Iowa State University

    shows that they will reciprocate the movement and find themselves strangely attracted

    to your way of thinking.

    LOVE: Open up

    Couples in love talk about the more intimate aspects of their lives. Research carried out

    by Robert Epstein, founder of the Cambridge Centre for Behavioural Studies, shows that

    the opposite is also true more intimate chat makes people feel attracted to each other.

    If you are out on a date, get the other person to open up by asking what advice they

  • More from the guardian

    Sperms' swimming and nav igational skills

    disrupted by common chemicals 1 2 May 201 4

    Thinking of buy ing dungarees? Just don't expect

    them to transform y ou into Alexa Chung 1 2 May

    201 4

    West Antarctica ice sheet collapse: 'it will change

    the coastline of the world' 1 3 May 201 4

    Rate of US honey bee deaths 'too high for long-term

    surv iv al' 1 5 May 201 4

    Openness on animal research 1 5 May 201 4

    More from around the web

    That Armpit Odor Say s a Lot About Who You Are

    (Pacific Standard)

    3D Printing, Cloud Engine Rev olutionize

    Manufacturing (The Enterprise Cloud Site)

    Why We Crav e Shared Experiences (Ev ents

    Univ ersity )

    This Anorexic Girl Was Ambushed At The Gy m.

    The Thing Is, Im Glad She Was. (This Blew My

    Mind)

    Is It Time to Quit Your Job, or Get Fired? Weigh the

    Pros and Cons: Take a Quiz and Get a Few Tips!

    (BizShifts-Trends)

    What's this?

    would give to their 10-year-old self, or what one object they would save in a house fire.

    About the author

    Richard Wiseman's first career was as a professional magician and he was once one of the

    youngest members of the Magic Circle. He studied at UCL and the University of

    Edinburgh and is now Britain's only professor for the public understanding of

    psychology, based at the University of Hertfordshire. He is also a fellow of the US-based

    Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and in 2001 he led an experiment to find the world's

    funniest joke. His previous books have included a study of luck, The Luck Factor, and 59

    Seconds, described by the science writer Simon Singh as "a self-help guide based on

    proper research". Rip It Up delves further into the science of self-help. The book is so

    titled because Wiseman wants readers to tear up the book's pages as they read them:

    "The book is all about people changing their behaviour," he says. "To emphasise this key

    message I am inviting readers to do something that they probably have never done.

    Each time, readers will be changing their behaviour and so altering how they think and

    feel."

    Ads by GoogleNew 2014 Kitchen Designs.

    New Designs, Great Offers & More. Get Free Design Catalog From SLEEK

    www.sleekworld.com/Free-Catalogs

    Pashmina Waterfront BLR

  • Pay 20% Now & Nothing till Possession. Starts at Rs.95 Lakhs.

    pashminadevelopers.com/bangalore/

    Tips for Beautiful Skin

    Get the right beauty tips for your skin from the Experts. Apply Now!

    kayaclinic.com

    2 01 4 Gu a r dia n New s a n d Media Lim ited or its a ffilia ted com pa n ies. A ll r ig h ts r eser v ed.