What you think, you become

What you think, you become. Dr Alia Crum is an assistant professor at renowned Stanford University and is famous for her research on the human mindset. In one of her famous talk, she shared a story about a group of researchers in Italy led by famous surgeon Dr Fabrizio Benedetti.

Dr Benedetti and his colleagues studied a group of patients undergoing thoracic surgery. During thoracic surgery, patients are normally put under anesthesia while surgeons make major incisions into side and back muscles to gain access to their hearts or lungs. The moment anesthesia starts fading away, the patient starts feeling terrible pain. As a routine treatment, patients are given strong doses of morphine sulfate as a powerful painkiller.

Dr Benditti and his fellow researchers made some changes to the procedure. Half of the patients were given morphine by the doctors standing beside the patient’s bed and the other half was given the same dose of morphine through IVs by a pre-programmed pump.

In the former case, the patients were aware of the dose being administered to them whereas in the latter case, the patients were unaware of it. Both the group of patients should have felt the same relief but that didn’t happen. The group that was aware that morphine was given to them reported significant reductions in pain as compared to the other group who received the same exact amount of morphine but wasn’t aware of it.

The results were shocking and rather surprising. Dr Benedetti and his colleagues applied the same procedure to test the effectiveness of other treatments like treatments for anxiety, Parkinson’s and hypertension. Their findings were significant and consistent.

When the patients were aware of the treatment and were expecting to receive the benefit, the treatment was highly effective. But when the patients were not, that same treatment (drug, pill, or procedure) was less effective or in some cases totally ineffective at all.

Dr Alia Crum decided the implement the experiment on stress as it adversely affects a person’s health and performance. Dr Crum wanted to research whether the harmful effects of stress can be reduced or eliminated if people were told that stress is a positive thing.

Along with her colleagues, Dr Crum conducted the experiment on 300 employees taken from two different firms divided into two groups. The first batch of 150 people was shown videos showing the negative effects of stress. The other batch was shown videos on the positive effect of stress such as strengthening brain muscles, critical decisions are taken amid stress, and that athletes perform best under pressure.

After two weeks, the results came over and were surprising.  The group shown videos with negative effects of stress had a decline in performance and stress levels increased, while those shown video with positive effects were more engaged. Dr Crum said the research showed we can change our behaviour just by changing our mindset.

We face personal, financial and other problems but tend to view them from a negative lens. Instead, we should learn to view them from a positive aspect. Famous scientist Edison’s house was in flames when his wife yelled they have lost all their possessions. Edison consoled her and said with their assets, the fire has also burnt their mistakes. With just a slight change in mindset, we can make a vast difference in our lives.