Mindful June 2017

people copied, by hand, an account of sabotaging
someone and then found products like soap and
toothpaste more desirable than if they had copied
a story about helping someone. Later studies
found that people felt guilty after washing.
Again, when other scientists redid the original
study they found no such effect. Maybe
some people do have a Lady Macbeth thing
going on, while others didn’t. The more important
lesson here is the need to be cautious in
extrapolating an artificial lab setup (copying a
story, not actually engaging in unethical behavior;
rating soap and toothpaste, not actually
scouring yourself) to real life.
6 Big Brother watching: A poster of watchful
eyes caused people, on the honor system, to chip
in more for coffee than when the walls were
bare. This 48-person 2006 study made headlines
and influenced public policy, with some
British police departments putting up posters of
staring eyes in an effort to keep people honest.
But in 2011, a redo with 138 people failed to find
a pro-social effect in people being “watched” by
the eyes of a poster.
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7 Wear red to attract a mate: Several studies
have reported that men rate women wearing
red as sexier and more attractive than women
wearing other colors, something that scientists
have spun into a “Just So Story” about how
our primate ancestors advertised their sexual
availability. But in a 2016 paper in Evolutionary
Psychology scientists described three experiments
with 800 young men (vs. two dozen in the
original study) finding no such effect. Lesson:
Even if there is a weak red effect, it’s a relatively
unimportant influence on how we judge potential
partners—certainly long-term ones, but even
one-night stands.
It’s easy to become cynical about psychology,
or at least the exciting results that the
media pick up. The general point is not that the
original, dubious claims are wrong. They might
be—heck, they probably are—true for some people.
Some of us likely do feel bolder in a power
stance. Maybe believing that it can transform
your life in a good way produces changes for
the good that bring that about. For if there is
one psychological effect that has stood the
test of time, and countless replications, it is
the placebo effect: that believing in the power
of something can make it so. At least for some
people, a little or a lot, in some circumstances
some of the time. ●
June 2017 mindful 21
Martin Ström (MSc, Lic Psychologist) is a director
at Potential Project, the world’s top provider of
corporate mindfulness. He has trained leaders and
staff at companies such as Accenture, IKEA, and
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