So, we enter the murky but important area of the human mind, specifically the matter of beliefs. Like the "Little Engine that Could", we believe we can do it. Does that belief really increase the chance of our doing it? Alternatively, we doubt that we can do it. Will holding that belief decrease our chance of doing it, whatever it is?
This is a murky area because there are many unknowns. For instance, how can I know if I really believe I can do it? Even without grasping that my mind and my brain are complex, I can think or say or write the words "I can do it. I know I can" while suspecting I am kidding myself. I have hopes of impressing the little red-headed girl so maybe I am saying that I believe I can do it while below that, I am doubting my ability. Besides ability, I know that simple luck matters in nearly everything. Sometimes I have good luck and sometimes I don't. Maybe I won't get the breaks this time.
I am interested in the subconscious mind in me and in others. I have read "The Hidden Brain" by Vedantam and it alerted me to the rapid, elaborate processes that go into my being influenced by factors I am not aware of. I learned more from "Incognito" by Eagleman. Now, I am on to "Before You Know It" by Bargh.
A heartening, real-world demonstration of using unconscious affiliations for self-betterment occurred about ten years ago at a high school in my area. At the beginning of the school year, Yale researchers gave at-risk students who were struggling in math a fictitious New York Times article about a student from another school who had won a major math award. There was a little "bio box" at the top of the article. In that box, for half of the students in the class, the birthday given for the award winner was made to be the same as for the student, although no mention was made of this fact. For the other students, the award winner's birthday was a different month and date from theirs. That was all the experimenters did, just a small, invisible tweak to create a link to the student's own identity. In May of the following year, at the end of that school term, the researchers looked at the final math grades for all the students in the study. And lo and behold, the students who had shared a birthday with the award winner had significantly higher final grades in math than the students who did not have the same birthday as the winner. Those who had the same birthday felt more similar to the award winner, and this carried over to their belief about their own math ability, with positive effects on their level of effort for the rest of the school year.
Bargh, John. Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do (Kindle Locations 2445-2455). Touchstone. Kindle Edition.
Related to this subject of unconscious influences is the subject of the wonderful "Cure" by Jo Marchant, PhD ($7.99 in Kindle). She discusses the twists and turns in medicine, cures, placebos and nocebos (believing that the juice or the nap or whatever will prevent me from winning).
