59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (9 page)

Although Hornstein’s finding is interesting, I somehow couldn’t see myself permanently wrapping a happy-sounding note around my wallet. Unfortunately, the same applies to much of the academic work into wallet dropping: although it is theoretically sound, it is not especially practical. Unperturbed, I canvassed friends for more useful suggestions about what I might put inside my wallet. Among the ideas were photographs of a baby, a dog, or something that suggested the owner was a thoroughly nice person. To find out which idea was the most effective, I turned back time and conducted a Hornsteinesque study.

I bought 240 wallets and filled them with the same set of everyday items, including raffle tickets, discount vouchers,
and fake membership cards. Next, one of four photographs was added to four batches of 40 wallets. The photographs depicted either a smiling baby, a cute puppy, a happy family, or a contented elderly couple. Another 40 wallets contained a card suggesting that the owner had recently made a contribution to charity, while the final batch of 40 acted as a control and contained no additional item. Each extra item was inserted behind a plastic window in each wallet, making it clearly visible when the wallet was opened. All of the wallets were then randomly ordered, and over a period of a couple of weeks were secretly dropped on the streets in areas of high pedestrian traffic but well away from mailboxes, trash containers, vomit, and dog feces.

Within a week 42 percent of the wallets were returned, and a clear pattern emerged. Of the wallets that made their way back, just 6 percent were from the control group, and 8 percent contained the charity card. The results from the wallets containing a photograph of the elderly couple, a cute puppy, or a happy-looking family were slightly more impressive, with return rates of 11 percent, 19 percent, and 21 percent, respectively. However, the winning wallets were those with the photograph of the smiling baby, taking first place with an impressive 35 percent return rate.

Why should the photograph of the baby have performed so well? The answer appears to lie deep within our evolutionary past. Brain-scanning scientists at Oxford University recently examined what was going on in people’s heads when they were shown photographs of either baby or adult faces.
⁴⁰
Even though all of the photographs were matched for attractiveness, activity in the section of the brain directly behind the eyes (officially referred to as the “medial orbitofrontal cortex”) kicked in within a seventh of a second after seeing the baby’s face but not the adult’s. The response happened too fast to be
consciously controlled, and the part of the brain involved is associated with people receiving a nice reward, such as a big bar of chocolate or a lottery win. Many scientists think that this “baby-awww” linkage has evolved over thousands of years and promotes the survival of future generations by making people feel good about, and therefore willing to help, vulnerable and defenseless infants. Other research suggests that this caring attitude not only applies to assisting babies but also increases the likelihood of people helping anyone in need. In this view, participants who opened the wallets containing the photograph of the baby couldn’t keep their brains from automatically responding to the image of big eyes, broad forehead, and button nose. Within a fraction of a second a deep-seated evolutionary mechanism caused them to rapidly get in touch with their inner parent, become happier and more caring, and thus be more likely to return the wallet.

Whatever the explanation, the practical message is clear: if you want to up the chances of a lost wallet being returned, tuck in a photograph of the cutest, happiest baby you can find and make sure that it is prominently displayed.

motivation

The
dark side
of visualization,
how to achieve absolutely anything
by creating the
ideal plan
,
overcoming
procrastination,
and employing
“doublethink”

THROUGHOUT THE PAST FORTY YEARS
, a large number of books, audio products, and training courses have promised to help people look beyond the perils of instant gratification and achieve their long-term goals. From visualization to self-affirmation, from being focused to going with the flow, you pays your money and you takes your choice. There is just one small problem: several scientific studies suggest that many of these exercises don’t work. Take, for example, the type of simple visualization exercise that I described at the start of this book. As you may remember, you were asked to close your eyes and imagine the new you—to think how great you would look in those close-fitting jeans, sitting in a huge office at the top of the corporate ladder, or sipping a cocktail as you feel the warm Caribbean sand between your toes. This type of exercise has been promoted by the self-help industry for years, with claims that it can help people lose weight, stop smoking, find their perfect partner, and enjoy increased career success. Unfortunately, a large body of research now suggests that although such exercises might make you feel good, the technique is, at best, ineffective.

In one study, conducted by Lien Pham and Shelley Taylor at the University of California, a group of students was asked to spend a few moments each day visualizing themselves getting a high grade on an important midterm exam that would take place in a few days’ time.
¹
They were asked to form a clear image in their mind’s eye and imagine how great it would feel
to make a high grade. The study also involved a control group of students, who went about their business as usual and were not asked to visualize doing especially well on the exams. The experimenters asked the students in both groups to make a note of the number of hours they studied each day, and monitored their final grades. Even though the daydreaming exercise lasted only a few minutes, it had a significant impact on the students’ behavior, causing them to study less and make lower grades on the exam. The exercise may have made them feel better about themselves, but it did not help them achieve their goals.

In another experiment, Gabriele Oettingen and Thomas Wadden, at the University of Pennsylvania, followed a group of obese women taking part in a weight-reduction program.
²
During the work, the women were asked to imagine how they might behave in various food-related scenarios, such as going to a friend’s house and being tempted with tasty pizza. Each of their responses was categorized on a scale ranging from highly positive (with, for example, someone stating, “I would be a good person and stay well away from the cakes and ice cream”) to highly negative (“I would be straight in there, consuming both my own and other people’s portions”). After the women were tracked for a year, the results revealed that those with more positive fantasies had lost, on average, twenty-six pounds less than those with negative fantasies.

Oettingen’s work has also shown that the same effects happen in many different situations.
³
In yet another study, she worked with a group of students who admitted to having a serious but secret crush on a classmate. She asked them to imagine what would happen in various scenarios, such as arriving early for class, sitting down, then seeing the door open and the apple of their eye enter. Once again, the degree of fantasizing was rated, this time varying between those who
seemed to live in a world that would make even the most ardent reader of Harlequin romances blush (“Our eyes meet, and we both know that this is the type of love that happens only once in a lifetime”) to more negative scenarios (“We are both free and single. He turns to me, smiles, and asks how I am. For some reason that I still do not fully understand, I explain that I already have a boyfriend”). Five months later, the results revealed that those with positive fantasies were less likely than others to have told the desirable classmate about their crush or made any other overture toward having a relationship with them.

Exactly the same effect applies to career success. Oettingen asked her senior students to note how often they fantasized about getting their dream job after graduating from college. A two-year follow-up revealed that the students who had reported frequently fantasizing about success had submitted fewer job applications, received a lower number of job offers, and commanded significantly smaller salaries than their classmates.

Why should it be so bad for you to imagine yourself achieving your goals? Researchers have speculated that those who fantasize about how wonderful life could be are ill prepared for the setbacks that frequently occur along the rocky road to success, or perhaps they enjoy indulging in escapism and so become reluctant to put in the effort required to achieve their goals. Either way, the message from the research is clear: fantasizing about your perfect world may make you feel better, but it is unlikely to help you transform your dreams into reality.

Fortunately, as this chapter will demonstrate, the results from other research into motivation are not all doom and gloom. A large amount of work has revealed that some techniques do help create permanent and positive changes in people’s
lives. From weight loss to quitting smoking, changing careers to finding your perfect partner, there are quick and painless techniques that can provide real help. It’s all about having the perfect plan, knowing how to beat procrastination, and employing a rather strange form of doublethink.

CREATING THE PERFECT PLAN

Think back to when you have attempted to achieve an important goal or ambition. Perhaps losing some weight, getting a new job, studying for an exam, or preparing for a key interview. What sorts of techniques did you use? Read each of the following statements and then decide whether you tend to use the technique described. Don’t spend too long thinking about each statement, and answer as honestly as possible.

When attempting to change an important aspect of my life, I tend to …
Now you need to create two scores. Create Score A by awarding yourself 1 point for each “Yes” answer to questions 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Next, create Score B by giving yourself 1 point for each “No” answer to questions 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. Disregard all other answers. Finally, add Score A and Score B to obtain a number between 0 and 10.

A few years ago I conducted two large-scale scientific studies on the psychology of motivation. The project involved tracking more than five thousand participants from around the world who were attempting to achieve a wide range of aims and ambitions, including losing weight, gaining new qualifications, starting a new relationship, quitting smoking, embarking on a new career, and being more environmentally friendly. One group was followed for six months, the other for one year. At the beginning of the project, the vast majority of participants was confident of doing well. At the end of their allotted time period, everyone was asked to describe the techniques that they had used to try to achieve their goals and to report their level of success. Only about 10 percent reported that they had successfully achieved their aims and ambitions. The questionnaire above contains the ten techniques that participants used most frequently. Some sound like good common
sense, and others frequently appear in self-help books and training courses. However, although the techniques may appear credible, according to our data, only half of them significantly increase your chances of being successful, while the other half are ineffective. The question is, which are which?

In our experiment, participants who endorsed the even-numbered items in the questionnaire were unlikely to achieve their goals. So, for example, those who adopted a celebrity role model, perhaps putting a picture of Cindy Crawford or Bill Gates on their refrigerator door, did not usually drop that all-important clothing size or achieve their business ambitions. Similarly, those relying on willpower, using thought suppression to erase images of cream cakes and chocolate sundaes from their mind, focusing on the bad things that would happen if they didn’t achieve their goals, or spending their time daydreaming were also wasting their time. All of these techniques constitute yet more striking examples of the types of motivational myths that prevent people from taking control of their lives.