Positive Feedback as a Multiplier for Progress

One scenario when we're likely to be flush with confidence and optimism is after receiving positive feedback. In a more recent study, Gabriele Oettingen and her colleagues tested the value of mental contrasting in a simulation of just such a situation.

“By thinking realistically about the obstacles to success, it helps us pick challenges that we're likely to win and avoid wasting time.”

Dozens of volunteers took part in what they thought was an investigation into creativity. Half the study participants were given false feedback on a test of their creative potential, with their results inflated to suggest that they'd excelled. In advance of the main challenge – a series of creative insight problems – some of the participants were then taught mental contrasting: writing about how good it would feel to smash the problems, and then writing about the likely obstacles to achieving that feat, such as daydreaming.

The best performers on the insight problems were those participants who'd received the positive feedback about their potential and who'd performed mental contrasting. They out-classed their peers who'd received inflated feedback but only indulged in positive thoughts, and they outperformed those participants who'd received negative feedback (regardless of whether they, too, performed mental contrasting).

So, the next time you receive some positive feedback, don't lose your focus. Indulge yourself a little – you're on track after all – but also take time to think about the obstacles that remain, and the practical steps you'll need to enact to overcome them. The mental contrasting technique guards against complacency, ensuring the boost of your early win is multiplied into long-term success.

--

What's Your Take?

Have you found success in visualizing obstacles when making plans? How did it work out?

WANT YOUR MESSAGE TO STICK? TELL A STORY

by Sean Blanda

It's the reason Steve Jobs sold millions of iPods by skipping the technical specifications and simply stating that one thousand songs could now fit in your pocket. It's the reason trial lawyers appeal to a jury's humanity as much as the letter of the law. It's the reason political candidates fight to define each other's narrative. When human beings need to persuade people about ideas, we tell stories.

-------------

In 2007, the American Association of Advertising Agencies published the results of a two-and-a-half year study that charted the effectiveness of two types of ads: ads that told a story and ads that appealed to rational reasoning. The result?

"For the most part, ads that tell stories and engage and involve consumers create stronger emotional relevance than product-centric ads," the study concluded.

We all remember the "Wassup " ad from Budweiser that told the story of a group of close friends with their own inside jokes. But do you remember the Miller Lite ad that touted the brand's low-carb recipe? Probably not.

In his book The Storytelling Animal, Jonathan Gottschall points to research by Italian neuroscientists as evidence for the effectiveness of stories. By implanting electrodes in a monkey's brain, researchers discovered that certain parts of the brain were activated both when the monkeys performed an action and when they witnessed other monkeys performing that same action.

In other words, we live vicariously through the actions and stories of others. It's the reason we wince when we hear a disgusting story or feel our heart race while watching an action movie. It's also the reason that ideas that evoke a specific narrative are more memorable -- they invite empathy, which increases the likelihood that they will be accepted and adopted.

"If you don't know how a principle came to exist you'll never adopt it as your own," says Jonathan Harris, an artist and co-founder of the online storytelling repository Cowbird. Without a good story to back it up, ideas are easily dislodged and replaced in our memories.

“Ideas that evoke a specific narrative are more memorable - they invite empathy, which increases the likelihood that they will be accepted and adopted.”

Поиск по сайту: