The Frontier of Mindset
Exploring the Power of the Mind
We started with an overview of growth and fixed mindsets, then we looked at how mindset affects leaders and followers. That’s all been a lead-up to something I’ve been yearning to write about: the new frontier of mindset research. Because when we’re talking about mindset, what we are arguably talking about is the power of belief. We’re really trying to grasp is the power of the mind. And the cutting-edge research has been examining how just powerful of these mindsets really can be.
Let’s start figuring out how to translate assurgo into English.
Or, better yet, how to translate it into action.
Does Believing Make It So?
Alia Crum and colleagues once asked people to come to a Yale lab to test out canned chocolate shakes. One week, they enjoyed an “indulgent” shake with 620 calories, then on the other week, they tried a “sensible” 140-calorie, low-fat shake. Unsurprisingly, the people reported feeling more full after having drank the indulgent shake, and blood tests confirmed this. Their blood showed a spike then drop in ghrelin, a gut hormone peptide linked to energy intake and considered a proxy measure for satiation.
But here’s the thing. Crum’s team had lied to the participants. The participants had drunk the same 380-calorie shake both times. But believing they were drinking an extravagant shake had changed how they processed it, both psychologically and physiologically.
If that wasn’t crazy enough, a Purdue team then followed it up by inviting people to their lab for jello shots. Okay, not really, but closer than you think!
Some people were given liquid (i.e., water) to drink and mac and cheese to eat, and they were told the liquid would remain liquid as they digested their meal. Others heard a ridiculous claim that the liquid they were about to drink (colored, chem-spiked water) would solidify in their gastrointestinal tracts. Still others were given gelatin cubes to eat and told an even more preposterous story: The gelatin would remain solid in their stomachs.
The Purdue researchers found that those who believed they had liquid in their guts felt less full, ate more, and had slower insulin and lower ghrelin responses than those who believed they had solid jello in their tummies.
I know, I know. Crazy. But bear with me on this.
For Crum and others, these findings are consistent with research on placebo effects. Giving someone a sugar pill and saying “Take this, you’ll feel better,” really does help you feel better. For an estimated 60-90 percent of medical conditions (e.g., allergies, depression, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and recovery from surgery), patients can have a clinically-significant benefit from the placebo effect.
It's becoming increasingly clear that our beliefs—yes, our mindsets—have tangible benefits on our physical and psychological health.
Perhaps it helps to think about it this way. Our brains perceive, analyze, expect, and anticipate, then respond, triggering biochemical responses that hope to meet our current needs and circumstance. And if that’s our starting point, then the idea that our cognition and psychology would not impact our metabolism starts to sound crazier than the alternative.
The brain is the expectation organ.
As leaders, how often do we consciously think about how shaping people’s expectations—and how it can have such a tangible impact on their well-being?
How often do we consciously consider the weight of our own expectations?
Quick Shots:
Placebos are so powerful that, in lab studies, even when people are explicitly told they are taking placebos, with no active medication, they still do better than those who took nothing at all. And substituting a placebo for half a course of medication has been found in some cases to be just as effective as taking the full course of drugs.
In fMRI studies, brains on placebos have similar changes in the ventral striatum to those given dopamine. Placebos may even change brain function. In one study, Parkinson’s patients given a placebo had both improved motor function and improved subthalamic nucleus firing.
While placebos make you feel better, nocebos are things we expect will hurt or make us sick. In clinical trials, as many as one-third of people receiving the inactive drugs drop out because of negative side effects—that they’re only suffering because their minds are telling them something’s wrong.
The Power of Labels
Crum and colleagues have been testing how much—and how little—it takes to change expectations with a host of experiments.
Scholars found that study participants ate more dessert after they took “an exercise walk,” compared to volunteers who had walked the same route but were told it was for sightseeing. In a relay-styled marathon, “serious” runners grabbed a chocolate bar over a granola snack. These virtuous labels were enough for people to act more unhealthfully, the researchers explained.
On the other hand, thousands of college students ate about 30 percent more vegetables simply because Crum’s team switched dining hall food descriptions to emphasize its taste (“citrus-glazed carrots”) over items’ health benefits.
That made me wonder what would happen if, instead of going for a workout, what would happen if we said we were going to a playout?
In case you’re wondering how we ended up labeling exercise as a workout, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “workout” comes from the (1890s-created) term for a practice run for a racehorse. Ugh. And predating that use, there was the sense of “work” to describe beating something (e.g., iron) into shape. Ugh.
In Your Sight:
While not as well-known as their happier cousins, nocebos may be as powerful—or even more so—than placebos. So stop saying things like “I always get sick after flying on a plane.”
In a July 2023 study, researchers applied growth mindset (a.k.a. traits/abilities are malleable) in the context of depression treatment. In this study, depressed people were taught to interpret depression not as an illness but as adaptive; it was a symptom that something sad was going on in their lives they should address. Those who heard that message were more likely to believe that depression was malleable. They were less likely to attach stigma to their having depression and they felt had a greater sense of agency over their depression.
In another one of Crum’s studies, when students were told about the recommended physical activity they should be doing, those who heard a lower recommended amount had a sense of greater self-efficacy and more physical activity the following week.
Lastly, some housekeeping….
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FYI, I’ve begun writing about the practice of law for US News & World Report. My first piece was on work-life balance in law firms (there isn’t any) and the second’s about “power of attorney” (what it is and when you might need one), and a third should be coming out this week. To keep up to date on those articles, join me on Substack Notes, LinkedIn, or that thing formerly known as Twitter.
And who wants to come playout?
