"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better…"
Saturday, January 13, 2024.
Émile Coué (1857 – 1926) was a French pharmacist and bullsh*t artist who popularized the placebo effect by chatting up his patients with hypnotic suggestions.
It was the unxious American capitalist, W. Clement Stone who promoted Coue, and the “awesome” power of auto-suggestion, which Stone swore was the cornerstone of his vast personal fortune.
In doing so, Stone helped drive the pseudo-science of positive self-talk deeply into the American consciousness.
Perhaps Coue’s most famous mantra was “every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better…”
Canadian psychologist Joanne V. Wood, Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Waterloo, and her colleagues decided to test the effects of what they call ‘positive self-statements’…
To this day, Coue’s ideas have saturated New Age Thinking. Positive mantras like “I am a lovable person” have long been a staple of self-help books and TV satire.
But does this work? How does this impact dispositional self-esteem?
According to many self-help books, the idea is simple, intuitive, and ostensibly magical: repeating “I am lovable” or “I am confident” will propel a human towards these preferred states of being.
It’s also an alligator in the swamp of New Age ideas. According to psychological research, though, positive self-talk doesn’t work all that well, and, for some humans, it might even backfire.
How the study was conducted
First, they wanted to see how many people used these statements.
The researchers surveyed 249 undergraduates. They asked how often they engaged in positive affirmations.
The findings indicated that most study subjects used occasionally, especially during stressful periods, like just before exams.
Next, the researchers wanted to see what kind of effect these self-statements had on people’s self-esteem.
The study subjects were asked to repeat, “I am a lovable person,” and their self-esteem was measured before and after.
Those who already possessed high self-esteem did indeed feel better about themselves… because they already believed the statement…
Our minds are not easily deceived…
Here’s the problem. For the study subjects with poor self-esteem, this self-talk backfired, resulting in a collapse of their self-esteem.
The researchers surmise that this happens because the mind and its occupying schema are not that easily mocked.
When a human with low self-esteem tries to tell themselves that they are a lovable person, however true it may be… they may experience an onslaught of even more contradictory thoughts, which results in their feeling worse than before they engaged in positive self-talk.
The study’s authors chide this pervasive American trope:
“Injunctions to ‘‘think positively’’ are pervasive in North America.
Self-help books, television shows, and loved ones advise thinking positively when one faces a challenge or is unhappy.
Yet the present results suggest that for certain people, positive self-statements may be not only ineffective, but actually detrimental.” (Wood et al., 2009).
They finish with a strong caveat for this pervasive aspect of American culture:
“…outlandish, unreasonably positive self-statements, such as ‘‘I accept myself completely,’’ are often encouraged by self-help books.
Our results suggest that such self-statements may harm the very people they are designed for: people low in self-esteem.”
Final Thoughts…
We’ve also been getting similar results from other, more recent studies (Moser, 2014). Positive self-talk can be highly problematic for some humans.
But the cultural messages we get crowd out sufficient space for that noticing.
Jason Moser, the study’s lead author, explained his findings about what was going on in the brains and nervous systems of his study subjects:
“The worriers actually showed a paradoxical backfiring effect in their brains when asked to decrease their negative emotions.
This suggests they have a really hard time putting a positive spin on difficult situations and actually make their negative emotions worse even when they are asked to think positively.”
In contrast, some humans could reduce the electronic signature of worry that the brain produces, suggesting positive thinking was working for them...because they already thought that way….
What I find aggravating about the pseudo-science of New Age thinking is that it attracts the dispositionally challenged in the first place.
But what I find amusing is that Americans have many decidedly unhelpful cultural tropes, such as this one, that we tend to ignore.
Research that puts a spotlight on persistently unhelpful cultural states and traits is deeply valuable, and a true public good.
Although it incubated in France, positive self-talk is a massive psychological meme that found an enduring home in a hopeful and vibrant American culture, and, unfortunately, persists to this day.
The best research says that if you’re feeling down, you might try a little self-acceptance and realistic, hard-nosed thinking instead.
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Moser, J. S., Hartwig, R., Moran, T. P., Jendrusina, A. A., & Kross, E. (2014). Neural markers of positive reappraisal and their associations with trait reappraisal and worry. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123(1), 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035817
Wood, J. V., Elaine Perunovic, W. Q., & Lee, J. W. (2009). Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others. Psychological Science, 20(7), 860-866. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02370.x
