Chatter
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“It’s a way of placing myself”: Nadal, Rafa.
This might explain the global influence: Maria Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2014).
perceptions of control: As Mark Landau, Aaron Kay, and Jennifer Whitson deftly argue in their review, “Compensatory Control and the Appeal of a Structured World,” this topic has been the focus of a tremendous amount of research over the past sixty years and has been studied from a variety of perspectives.
whether we try to achieve goals: Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986); and Bandura, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control (New York: Freeman, 1997).
improved physical health and emotional well-being: For reviews, see Landau, Kay, and Whitson, “Compensatory Control and the Appeal of a Structured World”; D. H. Shapiro, Jr., C. E. Schwartz, and J. A. Astin, “Controlling Ourselves, Controlling Our World: Psychology’s Role in Understanding Positive and Negative Consequences of Seeking and Gaining Control,” The American Psychologist 51 (1996): 1213–1230; and Bandura, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. Also see Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being,” American Psychologist 55 (2000): 68–78.
heightened performance at school and work: Michelle Richardson, Charles Abraham, and Rod Bond, “Psychological Correlates of University Students’ Academic Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” Psychological Bulletin 138 (2012): 353–387; Michael Schneider and Franzis Preckel, “Variables Associated with Achievement in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of Meta-analyses,” Psychological Bulletin 143 (2017): 565–600; Alexander D. Stajkovic and Fred Luthans, “Self-Efficacy and Work-Related Performance: A Meta-analysis,” Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998): 240–261.
more satisfying interpersonal relationships: Toni L. Bisconti and C. S. Bergeman, “Perceived Social Control as a Mediator of the Relationships Among Social Support, Psychological Well-Being, and Perceived Health,” Gerontologist 39 (1999): 94–103; Tanya S. Martini, Joan E. Grusec, and Silvia C. Bernardini, “Effects of Interpersonal Control, Perspective Taking, and Attributions on Older Mothers’ and Adult Daughters’ Satisfaction with Their Helping Relationships,” Journal of Family Psychology 15 (2004): 688–705.
causes our chatter to spike: For discussion, see Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, and Lyubomirsky, “Rethinking Rumination.”
propels us to try to regain it: Another resource that people frequently utilize to enhance their sense of control is religion, which provides people with order, structure, and organization on practical and spiritual levels. Aaron C. Kay et al., “God and the Government: Testing a Compensatory Control Mechanism for the Support of External Systems,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95 (2008): 18–35. For discussion, see Landau, Kay, and Whitson, “Compensatory Control and the Appeal of a Structured World.”
easier to navigate and more predictable: Landau, Kay, and Whitson, “Compensatory Control and the Appeal of a Structured World.”
illusory patterns: Jennifer A. Whitson and Adam D. Galinsky, “Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception,” Science 322 (2008): 115–117.
the one with the structured border: Keisha M. Cutright, “The Beauty of Boundaries: When and Why We Seek Structure in Consumption,” Journal of Consumer Research 38 (2012): 775–790. Also see, Samantha J. Heintzelman, Jason Trent, and Laura A. King, “Encounters with Objective Coherence and the Experience of Meaning in Life,” Psychological Science 24 (2013): 991–998.
reading about the world: Alexa M. Tullett, Aaron C. Kay, and Michael Inzlicht, “Randomness Increases Self-Reported Anxiety and Neurophysiological Correlates of Performance Monitoring,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 10 (2015): 628–635.
perceive in their surroundings: Catherine E. Ross, “Neighborhood Disadvantage and Adult Depression,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 41 (2000): 177–187.
subset of people: Not all people diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder are motivated to establish order in their surroundings: Miguel Fullana, “Obsessions and Compulsions in the Community: Prevalence, Interference, Help-Seeking, Developmental Stability, and Co-occurring Psychiatric Conditions,” American Journal of Psychiatry 166 (2009): 329–336.
proliferation of conspiracy theories: For discussion, see Landau, Kay, and Whitson, “Compensatory Control and the Appeal of a Structured World.”
Chapter Seven: Mind Magic
Franz Anton Mesmer: I used the following resources to tell Mesmer’s story: George J. Makari, “Franz Anton Mesmer and the Case of the Blind Pianist,” Hospital and Community Psychiatry 45 (1994): 106–110; Derek Forrest, “Mesmer,” International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 50 (2001): 295–308; Douglas J. Lanska and Joseph T. Lanska, “Franz Anton Mesmer and the Rise and Fall of Animal Magnetism: Dramatic Cures, Controversy, and Ultimately a Triumph for the Scientific Method,” in Brain, Mind, and Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century Neuroscience, ed. Harry Whitaker (New York: Springer, 2007), 301–320; Sadie F. Dingfelder, “The First Modern Psychology Study: Or How Benjamin Franklin Unmasked a Fraud and Demonstrated the Power of the Mind,” Monitor on Psychology 41 (2010), www.apa.org/monitor/2010/07-08/franklin; and David A. Gallo and Stanley Finger, “The Power of a Musical Instrument: Franklin, the Mozarts, Mesmer, and the Glass Armonica,” History of Psychology 3 (2000): 326–343.
didn’t miss this point: Benjamin Franklin, Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and Other Commissioners, Charged by the King of France, with the Examination of Animal Magnetism, as Now Practiced at Paris (London: printed for J. Johnson, 1785).
until the mid-twentieth century: This dramatic jump forward is largely owed to an anesthesiologist named Henry Beecher, who published an article in 1955 called “The Powerful Placebo”: Henry Beecher, “The Powerful Placebo,” Journal of the American Medical Association 159 (1955): 1602–1606.
ancient human tradition: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Amulet,” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
mythical seal: Joseph Jacobs and M. Seligsohn, “Solomon, Seal of,” Jewish Encyclopedia, www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13843-solomon-seal-of.
symbol of good fortune: Mukti J. Campion, “How the World Loved the Swastika—Until Hitler Stole It,” BBC News, Oct. 23, 2014, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591.
worry dolls: Charles E. Schaefer and Donna Cangelosi, Essential Play Therapy Techniques: Time-Tested Approaches (New York: The Guilford Press, 2016).
Heidi Klum: Dan Snierson, “Heidi Klum Reveals Victoria’s Secret,” Entertainment Weekly, Nov. 21, 2003.
Michael Jordan: NBA.com Staff, “Legends Profile: Michael Jordan,” NBA, www.nba.com/history/legends/profiles/michael-jordan.
healing practice of crystals has become big business: Rina Raphael, “Is There a Crystal Bubble? Inside the Billion-Dollar ‘Healing’ Gemstone Industry,” Fast Company, May 5, 2017.
it’s quite rational: For an excellent discussion of the psychological gymnastics that explain how rational individuals endorse superstitious beliefs, see Jane Risen, “Believing What We Do Not Believe: Acquiescence to Superstitious Beliefs and Other Powerful Intuitions,” Psychological Review 123 (2016): 182–207.
Study after study demonstrates: Yoni K. Ashar, Luke J. Chang, and Tor D. Wager, “Brain Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect: An Affective Appraisal Account,” Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 13 (2017): 73–98; Ted J. Kaptchuk and Franklin G. Miller, “Placebo Effects in Medicine,” New England Journal of Medicine 373 (2015): 8–9; and Tor D. Wager and Lauren Y. Atlas, “The Neuroscience of Placebo Effects: Connecting Context, Learning and Health,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 16 (2015): 403–418.
&nbs
p; irritable bowel syndrome patients: Ted J. Kaptchuk et al., “Components of Placebo Effect: Randomized Controlled Trial in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome,” British Medical Journal 336 (2008): 999–1003.
migraine sufferers: Karin Meissner et al., “Differential Effectiveness of Placebo Treatments: A Systematic Review of Migraine Prophylaxis,” JAMA Internal Medicine 173 (2013): 1941–1951.
improved respiratory symptoms for asthmatics: Michael E. Wechsler et al., “Active Albuterol or Placebo, Sham Acupuncture, or No Intervention in Asthma,” New England Journal of Medicine 365 (2011): 119–126.
varies notably across diseases and patients: For examples, see Andrew L. Geers et al., “Dispositional Optimism Predicts Placebo Analgesia,” The Journal of Pain 11 (2010): 1165–1171; Marta Pecina et al., “Personality Trait Predictors of Placebo Analgesia and Neurobiological Correlates,” Neuropsychopharmacology 38 (2013): 639–646.
injected a promising new chemical treatment: C. Warren Olanow et al., “Gene Delivery of Neurturin to Putamen and Substantia Nigra in Parkinson Disease: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Controlled Trial,” Annals of Neurology 78 (2015): 248–257. For additional evidence that placebos benefit Parkinson’s disease, see Raul de la Fuente-Fernandez et al., “Expectation and Dopamine Release: Mechanism of the Placebo Effect in Parkinson’s Disease,” Science 293 (2001): 1164–1166; Christopher G. Goetz, “Placebo Response in Parkinson’s Disease: Comparisons Among 11 Trials Covering Medical and Surgical Interventions,” Movement Disorders 23 (2008): 690–699; American Parkinson Disease Association, “The Placebo Effect in Clinical Trials in Parkinson’s Disease,” March, 6, 2017, www.apdaparkinson.org/article/the-placebo-effect-in-clinical-trials-in-parkinsons-disease/.
after participants completed: Leonie Koban et al., “Frontal-Brainstem Pathways Mediating Placebo Effects on Social Rejection,” Journal of Neuroscience 37 (2017): 3621–3631.
help people with chatter: The flip side to the emotionally fortifying boost of placebos holds as well. In a phenomenon dubbed the “nocebo” effect, believing that a substance will harm you has also been shown to have that effect in some circumstances. Paul Enck, Fabrizio Benedetti, and Manfred Schedlowski, “New Insights into the Placebo and Nocebo Responses,” Neuron 59 (2008): 195–206.
depression and anxiety: For review, see Ashar, Chang, and Wager, “Brain Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect.”
several months: Arif Khan, Nick Redding, and Walter A. Brown, “The Persistence of the Placebo Response in Antidepressant Clinical Trials,” Journal of Psychiatric Research 42 (2008): 791–796.
Tig Notaro: Stuart Heritage, “Tig Notaro and Her Jaw-Dropping Cancer Standup Routine,” Guardian, Oct. 19, 2012; Andrew Marantz, “Good Evening. Hello. I Have Cancer,” New Yorker, Oct. 5, 2012; Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Survival of the Funniest,” Vanity Fair, Dec. 18, 2012; and Tig Notaro, Live, 2012.
brain is a prediction machine: Andy Clark, “Whatever Next? Predictive Brains, Situated Agents, and the Future of Cognitive Science,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36 (2013): 181–204.
generalizes to our internal experiences: Irving Kirsch, “Response Expectancy and the Placebo Effect,” International Review of Neurobiology 138 (2018): 81–93; and Christian Büchel et al., “Placebo Analgesia: A Predictive Coding Perspective,” Neuron 81 (2014): 1223–1239.
strengthen our beliefs: For an excellent discussion of the role that preconscious and deliberative processes play in placebo effects, see Ashar, Chang, and Wager, “Brain Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect”; Donald D. Price, Damien G. Finniss, and Fabrizio Benedetti, “A Comprehensive Review of the Placebo Effect: Recent Advances and Current Thought,” Annual Review of Psychology 59 (2008): 565–590; and Karin Meissner and Klaus Linde, “Are Blue Pills Better Than Green? How Treatment Features Modulate Placebo Effects,” International Review of Neurobiology 139 (2018): 357–378; John D. Jennings et al., “Physicians’ Attire Influences Patients’ Perceptions in the Urban Outpatient Surgery Setting,” Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 474 (2016): 1908–1918.
rodents and other animals respond to placebos: As reviewed in Ashar, Chang, and Wager, “Brain Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect.” Also see R. J. Herrnstein, “Placebo Effect in the Rat,” Science 138 (1962): 677–678; and Jian-You Gou et al., “Placebo Analgesia Affects the Behavioral Despair Tests and Hormonal Secretions in Mice,” Psychopharmacology 217 (2011): 83–90; and K. R. Munana, D. Zhang, and E. E. Patterson, “Placebo Effect in Canine Epilepsy Trials,” Journal of Veterinary Medicine 24 (2010): 166–170.
brain and spinal cord: Tor D. Wager and Lauren Y. Atlas, “The Neuroscience of Placebo Effects.”
brain’s pleasure circuitry: Hilke Plassmann et al., “Marketing Actions Can Modulate Neural Representations of Experienced Pleasantness,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (2008): 1050–1054.
hunger hormone ghrelin: Alia J. Crum et al., “Mind over Milkshakes: Mindsets, Not Just Nutrients, Determine Ghrelin Response,” Health Psychology 30 (2011): 424–429.
stronger for psychological outcomes: Ashar, Chang, and Wager, “Brain Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect.”
placebos can act as enhancers: Slavenka Kam-Hansen et al., “Altered Placebo and Drug Labeling Changes the Outcome of Episodic Migraine Attacks,” Science Translational Medicine 6 (2014): 218ra5.
potent persuasive device: For a classic reference, see Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo, “The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 19 (1986): 123–205.
Ted Kaptchuk and his team: Ted J. Kaptchuk et al., “Placebos Without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome,” PLoS One 5 (2010): e15591.
our own experiment: Darwin Guevarra et al., “Are They Real? Non-deceptive Placebos Lead to Robust Declines in a Neural Biomarker of Emotional Reactivity,” Nature Communications (in press).
nondeceptive placebos: James E. G. Charlesworth et al., “Effects of Placebos Without Deception Compared with No Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine 10 (2017): 97–107.
Bronislaw Malinowski: Raymond W. Firth, “Bronislaw Malinowski: Polish-Born British Anthropologist,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Feb. 2019; Katharine Fletcher, “Bronislaw Malinowski—LSE pioneer of Social Anthropology,” June 13, 2017, LSE History, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2017/06/13/bronislaw-malinowski-lse-pioneer-of-social-anthropology/; Michael W. Young and Bronislaw Malinowski, Malinowski’s Kiriwina: Fieldwork Photography, 1915–1918 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
betel nuts: Cindy Sui and Anna Lacey, “Asia’s Deadly Secret: The Scourge of the Betel Nut,” BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/health-31921207; “Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942),” Lapham’s Quarterly, www.laphamsquarterly.org/contributors/malinowski.
“I kick thee down”: Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2010), loc. 5492–5493, Kindle; Bronislaw Malinowski, “Fishing in the Trobriand Islands,” Man 18 (1918): 87–92; Bronislaw Malinowski, Man, Science, Religion, and Other Essays (Boston: Beacon Press, 1948).
psychology of human beings: I drew from this excellent review on the psychology of rituals for this section of the book: Nicholas M. Hobson et al., “The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 22 (2018): 260–284.
West Point: “10 Facts: The United States Military Academy at West Point,” American Battlefield Trust, www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-united-states-military-academy-west-point.
business world as well: Samantha McLaren, “A ‘No Shoes’ Policy and 4 Other Unique Traditions That Make These Company Cultures Stand Out,” Linkedin Talent Blog, Nov. 12, 201
8, business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/company-culture/2018/unique-traditions-that-make-these-company-cultures-stand-out.
Wade Boggs: George Gmelch, “Baseball Magic,” in Ritual and Belief, ed. David Hicks (Plymouth, UK: AltaMira Press, 2010): 253–262; Jay Brennan, “Major League Baseball’s Top Superstitions and Rituals,” Bleacher Report, Oct. 3, 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/375113-top-mlb-superstitions-and-rituals; and Matthew Hutson, “The Power of Rituals,” Boston Globe, Aug. 18, 2016.
Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs, Commencement Address, Stanford University, June 12, 2005, Stanford News, June 14, 2005.
Michael Norton and Francesca Gino: Michael I. Norton and Francesca Gino, “Rituals Alleviate Grieving for Loved Ones, Lovers, and Lotteries,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143 (2014): 266–272.
naturally turn: Martin Lang et al., “Effects of Anxiety on Spontaneous Ritualized Behavior,” Current Biology 25 (2015): 1892–1897; Giora Keinan, “Effects of Stress and Tolerance of Ambiguity on Magical Thinking,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67 (1994): 48–55; and Stanley J. Rachman and Ray J. Hodgson, Obsessions and Compulsions (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980).
recited psalms: Richard Sosis and W. Penn Handwerker, “Psalms and Coping with Uncertainty: Religious Israeli Women’s Responses to the 2006 Lebanon War,” American Anthropologist 113 (2011): 40–55.
reciting the rosary: Matthew W. Anastasi and Andrew B. Newberg, “A Preliminary Study of the Acute Effects of Religious Ritual on Anxiety,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 14 (2008): 163–165.
consume fewer calories: Allen Ding Tian et al., “Enacting Rituals to Improve Self-Control,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 114 (2018): 851–876.
“Don’t Stop Believin’ ”: Alison Wood Brooks et al., “Don’t Stop Believing: Rituals Improve Performance by Decreasing Anxiety,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 13 (2016): 71–85. There is also evidence indicating that performing rituals reduces activation in brain systems that become active when people experience anxiety. Nicholas M. Hobson, Devin Bonk, and Michael Inzlicht, “Rituals Decrease the Neural Response to Performance Failure,” PeerJ 5 (2017): e3363.