Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

In our last +1, we revisited Ellen Langer at her “Psychology of Possibility” lab at Harvard to learn that words matter.    As you may recall, simply priming people with words associated with old age (via a crossword puzzle!) will cause them to walk more slowly to the elevator than those who weren’t primed with those words.   *rubs eyes*   One more time: Astonishing, eh?    And…   One more time: WORDS MATTER. A lot.   Langer shares that study and wisdom in her book Counterclockwise in a section in which she also talks about “placebos” and other truly fascinating studies.   Here’s how she puts it: “When we see mind and body as parts of a single entity, the research on placebos takes on new meaning and suggests we can not only control much of our disease experience, but we may also be able to extend our ability to gain, recover, or enhance our health.   Placebos often come in the form of a single word that captures a richer mindset. In one study I conducted with my students, we explored the mi