Brian Johnson discusses research by psychologist Ellen Langer showing that manipulated biometric feedback can change how people report feeling—people told their data is worse report feeling worse. He uses this to argue for mindfulness and active reframing: mine data for lessons, affirm intrinsic wellbeing ("soul score 101"), and use data to "win or learn" rather than let it define you.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last plus one, we talked about the fact that AURA couldn't see through my raw sleep data to recognize the fact that the prior night was in fact, one of the most inspiring nights of my life. We briefly chatted about Admiral McRaven's electric speech. And then I mentioned what I do when my AURA data isn't optimal. I promised to talk about the science behind why I do that. Here it is. As we've discussed many times, Ellen Langer is one of the most respected modern psychologists. She was the first woman to ever gain tenure in Harvard's renowned psychology department. And she created her own field of research known as the Psychology of Possibility. We have featured a couple of her books, including Clockwise Mindfulness and the Power of Mindful Learning. Check out all those notes. Now, there's a lot we can talk about in her research, but this is a 1, not a 11, so I'll get to the point. Ellen Langer tells us that you can bring people into a lab and measure their biometrics and share that data with them, kind of like aura readiness and sleep scores. But here's the deal. When the researchers share the data, they give the participants inaccurate data. They want to see what happens if, for example, you tell someone who's actually doing great that they're not doing great. For example, imagine going into a lab and wearing an OURA ring. You sleep pretty well, and you're pretty well recovered and should have a pretty good score. But the researchers manipulate your data and the score you see is much lower than it should be. You know what happens when they ask the participants to rate how they feel? They say they feel worse than they actually feel if they saw data that was manipulated to make them think they should feel worse than they actually did. Isn't that fascinating? Professor Langer's point? Be very mindful. Mindfulness is a key part of her work and refuse to let data like that negatively affect you. And that's why when I might have a bad night of sleep or a low readiness from Aura, I very quickly, 1, 2, 3, mine the data for anything valuable. Win or learn style. Then I immediately tell myself my soul 4 score is at a 101. Then I immediately scroll back to my last grade score. Then I tell myself, that's how I feel, and that's today's 1. Use whatever data you have to help you win or learn. Then make sure you win today.
