This essay was featured in the STSC Omnibus, a weekly collaboration between STSC writers. You can read the full volume below.
Have you ever heard someone swear by a strange ritual? You know, those rituals that make us level-headed types roll our eyes at the superstitious. Where someone says their favorite shirt brings them luck. Or a new lifestyle change gives them energy. You might be inclined to say something nerdy like, “Well maybe that’s just the placebo effect. That shirt isn’t actually bringing you luck. It’s really just in your head.”
If you think that is a remotely valid point, you might have the tendency to major in the minors. Who cares if the only reason you feel more energetic is solely because you believe it? While it may be just in your head, that doesn’t make it any less effective. Especially since your entire worldview and the feelings responsible for satisfaction and significance are just in your head. The mechanism by which something provides an improvement is minutiae in the face of what really matters: whether the improvement is felt or not.
Science and Rationality
But what about science? As the political right loves to point out, facts do not care about your feelings. They exist and they supersede any feelings you might have. The problem with taking a scientific approach to everything is that science has its limits. Science is a mechanism that works by taking a measurable hypothesis and putting it through a test that compares an experimental variable to an objective control. The key to a valid scientific study is that the hypothesis must be objectively falsifiable and the methodology must be both repeatable and reproducible. Let’s break that down.
Falsifiability is the idea that something can be proven false or incorrect through observation. “All zebras have stripes,” is an example of a falsifiable hypothesis because it can be disproved by the observation of a zebra without stripes. For further evidence, you could even design a test where you take the DNA of the zebra in question to prove that it is in fact, a stripeless zebra. To have any merit, this test needs to be repeatable and reproducible.
Repeatability describes a methodology that is robust enough to yield the same predictable results when repeated by the same person at a different point in time. This means the methodology must create an artificial environment that controls for every variable that may change over time.
Reproducibility refers to the concept that a methodology can yield the same predictable results when repeated by different people. This means if you set up the artificial environment in Vietnam and complete the experiment, you will have the same outcome as if I set up the artificial environment and test a different set of samples in Canada.
The enlightened reader might notice that some concepts do not fit into this bucket of criteria. Feelings like energy, motivation, and luck. These are all intangible, subjective traits that are beyond the capabilities of scientific study.
One, because they are not falsifiable. I cannot look at you and prove that you are not feeling lucky right now. Feelings like significance, love, and luck cannot be objectively observed in others. I can observe happiness, anger, disgust, and other feelings based on your facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice; but I cannot disprove that you are feeling any of those emotions. Especially if you have a good poker face. Only the person experiencing the emotions can say whether they exist, and even that requires a certain level of self-awareness.
Two, because these experiments cannot be repeated. It is impossible to create a controlled environment in which all variables impacting your feelings remain constant. Memories have a profound impact on your state of mind. With each waking second, you inscribe yourself with new memories, and hence, a new paradigm to operate from. Your feelings change you, and as you change, the way you feel changes.
As Heraclitus said:
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
Good luck creating a repeatable experiment in those conditions!
Three, because it is impossible to find an objective measure between two different people. Even if I ask you to rate your feelings of loneliness on a scale of 1-10. A four is going to mean something totally different to someone else because you have a completely different set of experiences and hence, completely different reference points. Simply put, the variation between people is too great.
So what do we do with these emotions? Pretend they don’t exist because they operate outside the realm of science? Instead, we can turn to something that has been observed by the scientific-minded among us: The Placebo Effect. This is the phenomenon where you see positive results simply from the power of belief. If you believe popping a sugar pill will reduce your stress, stress biomarkers like your blood pressure or cortisol levels will drop.
A similar phenomenon has been observed: The Nocebo Effect. Someone could believe that the same sugar pill is a poisonous stimulant, and their heart rate will shoot up. I remember seeing a study that compared those who both believed stress was bad for their health and self-reported high stress levels with others who believed stress was inconsequential to their health and also self-reported lots of stress. Those in the Nocebo camp saw problems like an increased incidence of cardiac arrest, all-cause mortality, and other harmful biomarkers. Those that did not view stress in a negative light yet still experienced large stress levels were without the negative health effects we generally associate with stress.
While we can observe its effects and scientifically prove its existence, the mechanism behind The Placebo Effect defies scientific explanation. In a world dominated by empirical study and the need for a source for any claim, the Placebo Effect gets swept under the rug by midwits as pseudoscientific gobbledygook because they don’t understand how it works. A little piece of unsolicited advice that might save you some day: just because you don’t understand how something works, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
“I have exceptional levels of focus. I can do anything I put my mind to.” While you don’t have a peer-reviewed source for these beliefs, adding them to your repertoire of closely held beliefs can only benefit you as proven by The Placebo Effect. It sounds corny, but your thoughts have an extreme influence over both your biology and your reality. Brainwash yourself with irrationally positive beliefs and you will see irrationally positive improvements in your life. On the other hand, irrationally negative beliefs wreak havoc on your life due to the Nocebo Effect.
Identifying the Weeds
The first step towards harboring irrationally positive beliefs is to pluck out the irrationally hindrances via negativa. The reason to remove the negative first is because they harm you much more than the irrationally positive help you. It goes without saying, but the transition from wanting to die to enjoying some things in life is much more meaningful than from enjoying some things in life to enjoying most things in life.
A via negativa approach to your belief system means plucking the weeds from your garden of beliefs lest they choke out the plants you wish to grow. Let’s consider which of your plants are weeds.
The weeds are beliefs that meet two criteria:
1) They have no empirical grounding
2) They do you a disservice
These beliefs make you angry at the world, others, and yourself; they impede your relationships; and most importantly, they prevent you from being who you truly want to be. In short, these beliefs rob you of your inner peace.
At first it may seem obvious what beliefs of yours limit you, but it’s easy to overlook blind spots in your own identity. To illustrate this point, I’ll name drop a contentious topic that will certainly lose me readers, while stimulating those that can entertain a reasonable discussion that may contradict their beliefs. This is for the better anyways. I digress. Let’s talk about oppression.
Oppression is an arbitrary distinction primarily because the definition of a human right varies wildly from person to person. Freedom of speech, bodily autonomy, healthcare, safety. These are rights to some but privileges to others, and when one of our rights are violated, we consider ourselves oppressed. My question is this: whether you think you are an oppressed straight white male or an oppressed queer BIPOC, what benefit do you get from this belief? There is no doubt that both groups face different challenges and perhaps some groups experience more challenges than others. But does this belief enrich your life in any way or does it simply make you angry at the powers that be?
Note that righteous anger can be a powerful vehicle for change à la MLK or Jesus, yet how many of the oppressed let their anger motivate them to increase their influence or work towards meaningful, constructive change? And no, arguing with your friends or complaining online "to spread awareness" constitutes neither meaningful nor constructive change.
More often than not, I see oppression used as a self-limiting belief to justify the beholder's dissatisfaction with life. Sure, some situations are difficult and unjust, but to identify with oppression leads most from anger into self-destructive resentment. Resentment towards real targets like your neighbor and imagined targets like The Cabal. When you feel that you are oppressed, you find your confirmation bias working against you: evidence of oppression is everywhere, even in the most innocuous situations. As Naval Ravikant put it:
“The world reflects your feelings back at you.”
Perhaps my position of privilege (my belief that I am not oppressed - among other privileges) invalidates any thoughts I have on the matter. Or perhaps those that believe themselves to be oppressed share a tendency to scapegoat a shadowy cabal instead of facing the real culprit behind their dissatisfaction with life. Perhaps instead of identifying with oppression, it is worthwhile to reconsider what you classify as a human right and what you classify as a privilege.
The simple heuristic from this discussion is a play on an old Henry Ford quote: Whether you believe you’re oppressed or believe you’re not, you’re right. The gray area is whether this belief serves you or not. As illustrated in this discussion, a belief like oppression can serve as a motivational force to fuel the fulfillment of your destiny while other times the same belief can be used as a crutch to execute self-sabotaging behavior.
What constitutes a belief beheld to The Nocebo Effect depends on whether it generates self-serving or self-sabotaging results. Remember, the goal is to pluck the self-sabotaging weeds from your garden of beliefs. I'll leave the identification of weeds up to you and your underqualified therapist.
Pulling Weeds
While not easy, it is a simple fix to stop subscribing to self-harming beliefs: break the positive feedback loop between belief and biology. Stress hormones and biological signals fuel racing thoughts which influence your signaling which influence your thoughts ad infinitum to create The Nocebo Feedback Loop.
One such illustration of this feedback loop between belief and biology is captured in a 1946 Johns Hopkins project by Dr. Caroline Bedell Thomas. She found that a specific psychological profile was linked to cancer:
"Poor relationship with parents, passivity, a compulsive need to please, and above all an inability to rise from depression after some traumatic event such as death of a loved one or loss of a job."
It goes without saying, but since the Internet is the land of outrageous opinions, let me clearly articulate some nuance: the point of this example isn’t to say every case of cancer is the result of a bad attitude. Rather, it illustrates that when The Nocebo Feedback Loop runs amok, the gravity of the results can be dreadful.
There are two approaches to breaking this feedback loop:
1) Change your biology
2) Change your harmful beliefs
Regardless of which choice you make, your negative beliefs must be eliminated to destroy The Nocebo Feedback Loop. Option 1 is an indirect path that can be accomplished by modifying your diet, exercise, and sleep habits. Further, you can take pills designed to change your biology, but you risk setting off an iatrogenic cascade of side effects.
Option 2 is the direct route. Now, I could go into great lengths about the mechanics of changing your harmful beliefs, which I have attempted in past essays, but I don’t believe any technique will be as useful as the simple yet difficult advice to identify the weeds, reach for the roots, and pull them out. How you decide to negate The Nocebo Effect my dear reader, is not in my jurisdiction. As a wise man once said, “It is up to you.”
Planting Seeds
If we continue the metaphor of your garden of beliefs, there is more to gardening than plucking weeds and expecting a beautiful floral arrangement to grow. While clearing the weeds is an important first step, you have to plant the right seeds.
Good seeds fall into place when you let them fall serendipitously rather than deliberate placement. Think about the last time you felt pure joy. It probably wasn’t the result of direct willpower, but a blissful moment that couldn’t have been premeditated or engineered into existence. Like laughing with a friend, peacefully soaking up a breezy summer afternoon, or realizing you are in love.
The easiest way to plant seeds is by letting ideas flow into your head naturally. Go for a long walk and casually ponder whatever comes to mind. Think about which of your beliefs bring you a net positive return on investment and which are a burden. Return to a hobby you enjoyed as a child. Let your attention flow towards what brings you peace. Putting yourself in a relaxed, peaceful state is the easiest environment to plant seeds of irrationally optimistic beliefs.
Cultivating Your Garden
Once seeds are planted, the next step is to cultivate an environment conducive to growth: adequate levels of sunlight, clean water, and fertilizer. Literal sunlight, regular exercise, and a mostly but not militantly healthy diet are the simplest basics. Removing the toxins from your water stream or consumption habits is the next layer.
As I love to frequently discuss, what enters your mind directly impacts what you believe. Just like your physical performance, if you put garbage in your mind and body, you can expect garbage outputs. Yes, this includes your absent-minded consumption of background music filled with lyrics of self-pity. The relentless removal of toxins from your consumption stream will grow those good seeds more than any supplements can do.
After removing the impurities from your water, the last step is to supplement with fertilizer: good art. Whether it’s a depiction of nature, beautiful music, aesthetic architecture, or even nature itself; surrounding yourself with art that inspires you is an ideal supplement to growing a garden of optimism. Inspiring art is generally subjective to the beholder, but allow me point you in an interesting direction: look into increasing your exposure to the more intriguing fractal geometry over the woefully uninspiring Euclidean geometry.
With your weeds removed, good seeds planted, and a nurturing environment for growth, you should have no problems cultivating The Placebo Mindset in your garden of beliefs.
The Placebo Mindset as a Tool
Someone could take this concept and run too far with it so let’s establish the boundaries where irrational beliefs are useful and where they aren’t. On the one hand, if your irrational belief is harmful to others, it is egotistical and imprudent to hold. On the other hand, holding an irrational belief that can be disproven by empirical means is ignorant. The sweet spot lies in the middle of these two extremes.
If listening to Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson makes you feel motivated, why wouldn’t you give it a spin every once in a while? If taking a sugar pill makes you feel more focused, why wouldn’t you take it? If wearing a certain shirt makes you feel lucky and grateful for any good fortune that comes your way, why wouldn’t you wear it? All of these feelings have no metrics besides your own subjective experience, so why not reap the benefits? As long as you don’t use Carly Rae Jepson, the sugar pill, or your lucky shirt as a crutch, what’s the problem with placebo?
Given two facts:
1) The validity of these beliefs cannot be confirmed or denied (i.e. there’s no way to scientifically prove if they are true or false)
2) The Placebo Effect means there is a benefit to yourself and others for embracing these beliefs
Why wouldn’t you believe them?
For my dear readers struggling with cultivating an irrationally optimistic garden, I leave you with a quote to ponder:
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" - Terry Pratchett