In a study that may shake the old belief that positive thinking peps up people, researchers have found that optimistic thoughts may, in fact, make people feel worse.
Joanne V. Wood and John W. Lee, psychologists from the University of Waterloo, and W.Q. Elaine Perunovic from the University of New Brunswick established that those with little sense of worth felt worse about themselves after repeating positive self-statements.
Contradictory thoughts explain the phenomenon
For the purpose of the study, these psychologists divided the respondents into two groups, one with people with low self-esteem and the second with people with high self-esteem.
The respondents were asked to reiterate the axiom: "I am a lovable person". Thereafter, the researchers measured their disposition and thoughts about themselves.
They found that individuals who had low self-esteem, initially felt worse after repeating the positive self-statement. The respondents with high self-esteem somewhat felt better after repeating the upbeat self-statement.
Wood gave a possible explanation to this outcome, “I think what happens is that when a low self-esteem person repeats positive thoughts, they probably have contradictory thoughts."
"So, if they're saying 'I'm a lovable person,' they might be thinking, 'Well, I'm not always lovable' or 'I'm not lovable in this way,' and these contradictory thoughts may overwhelm the positive thoughts," she opined.
Self help books provide no solace
In a follow up study, the psychologists encouraged the respondents to list negative self-thoughts along with the positive self-thoughts.
Quite strangely, people with low self-esteem had relatively upbeat moods when they were asked to have pessimistic thoughts than when they were requested to focus completely on positive thoughts.
The Canadian psychologists, in a way, denounce the hugely popular theory of 'The Power of Positive Thinking’ by Norman Vincent Peale.
An obvious corollary of the study is that the self-help books
that one turns to when one is feeling low, are just worth the paper they are printed on.
The study entitled Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others, has been published in a recent issue of the journal Psychological Science.
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