So good, in fact, that our brains have trouble distinguishing between something that really happened, and something that we just imagined. Our brains are very good at envisioning imagined scenarios. How does our brain make this leap? Well, let’s take a closer look.īehind the Scenes: Storytelling and the Brain Since the 1970s, Timothy Wilson’s research consistently shows how we make decisions on unconscious irrational impulses – our often unfounded anxieties and fears – although we consciously rationalize with elaborate explanations for our behavior. A little less sexy, story editing is one of the brilliant breakthroughs of social psychologist Timothy Wilson. The first student has a grand story but no plan to change his circumstances. She’s shown how to change her environment so she can flourish. She’s given strategies for studying differently. She gets testimonials from older students that college life can get better. She’s shown statistics of how successful high school students typically suffer their first year or two in college. Plus, his father never told him he was smart. Maybe it has to do with when he was five-years-old and his parents divorced and he was left to fend for himself but never really adapted to that new situation well. The first student thinks he’s the problem. Yet, after their first semester, both are lagging academically and emotionally they’re each a mess. To illustrate, take for example, this tale of two college freshmen.īased on their high school success and 4.0 GPAs, two freshmen enter college optimistic and assured of their abilities. University graduates who fantasized about their success transferring into the real world earned less, received fewer job offers, and sent fewer job applications out in the first place. Dieters who focused on visualizing their fit future selves shed fewer pounds. Similarly, studies have found that couples who claimed optimism about their future were more likely to experience marital strife. In Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious, cognitive psychologist Timothy Wilson notes how positive self-affirmations alone can actually make people feel worse about themselves and their abilities to achieve their goals. But as you have probably experienced firsthand, life isn’t quite that simple. We often talk about the power of positive thinking: simply envision yourself acing the job interview and the position is yours, or imagine driving the car of your dreams and soon enough, it will materialize before you.
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