The Placebo of Positive Thinking
“The best way to start the day is with a cup of positivity: Good Morning”
This, and many other such banal WhatsApp forwards have become a part of our daily interconnected life. Now picture this: You get one such message, pay heed to its innocent advice and get on with your daily routine. You take a shower, get ready for work, and step out of your house to breathe in the toxic air of one of India’s soon-to-be-smart metropolitan cities. You get inside your car, start driving to work and realize the traffic is backed up for miles. You turn on the radio to make better use of your time waiting in what seems like a never-ending traffic jam. The news bulletin talks about a train accident that killed a few hundred people; a minor who was brutally raped and a corrupt politician who is brazening it out despite enough circumstantial evidence to indict him on charges of graft. You tell yourself, “Be positive- it is going to be a beautiful day”. You finally get to work and get doused with the daily abrasions of working in a highly politicized and competitive workplace. You finish work late in the evening, start driving back home and turn on the radio. You are informed that the pollution levels in your city touched new high today. You are also notified of the fact that another rape took place and that the police are looking for the offenders. Finally, you are told that a group of political activists vandalized cinema halls protesting against the release of a film that had a few anti-national actors in it. You get home, only to realise that your kid who stayed up till 9pm to see you is now asleep! Your mind briefly thinks about how she spent the whole day without the pleasure of your company. You check your WhatsApp again and realize that you received 50 odd messages throughout the day. These messages added to your growing repertoire of sexist, misogynist and racist jokes and religious or political propaganda.
This is a day in the life of an urban workingIndian. For decades, we have let our own self-loathing stew and boil over whenever tragic incidents or political and bureaucratic corruption go beyond our collective limits of tolerance. In the past two decades, however, India has witnessed its own “positive spring” of sorts. This movement gathered momentum with economic liberalization of the early 90’s. What provided this movement support was the philosophy that all inhibitors of socio-economic progression were inherently structural and regulatory in nature. This philosophy was aggressively propagated through academia, industry and the media and that trend continues to this day. This philosophy provided ideological cover to the positive thinking movement where the underlying belief was that since we were finally free the shackles of self-imposed boundaries of success; our happiness depended solely on our own ability to internalize positive thinking. Success and happiness became synonyms. Financial success and happiness became fellow travelers.
The first Indian writer to ride this wave of positivity was Shiv Khera. His book “You can Win” became a runaway bestseller. It was translated into many regional languages and has sold over 3 million copies over the last 16 years. This does not include the many pirated copies sold at makeshift bookstalls all over India. Like all smart salesmen, Khera foresaw the trend and became one of its early evangelists. Others, including new age babas, spiritual gurus and management coaches caught on to the trend later and their tireless efforts have created a whole new industry of positive thinking. The digitisation of information, self-help manuals and small-talk has spread this epidemic to all nooks and crannies of our society. Where did the positive thinking movement originate? Is the Indian society unique in experiencing this phenomenon? What are the philosophical and psychological moorings of this phenomenon? How does positive thinking as a communal way of coping affect our collective morale and our cognitive and emotional well-being?
Elements of positive thinking
Positive thinking essentially has two elements. The first is the thought itself-i.e. thinking positive things. The underlying assumption of this element is that we create the world in our image. Our image of the world comprises of the building blocks of our disposition, our independent physical being and our heritage. Every other element of identity is conveniently ignored. The presupposition here is that by keeping a positive disposition, you create the physical world in your own image. The physical world is a reflection of your disposition. For elements of the physical world that cannot be transformed by your individual thought, the second element of the positive thinking hypothesis kicks in. The second element is the instrumentalisation of the thought. The logical structure of the positive thinking philosophy contains a hidden supposition that positive thinking is a kind of magnetic field that attracts physical beings around you and transforms them while it transforms you. It is here that the whole positive thinking movement has a structural problem. The problem here is that the positive thinking philosophy completely ignores the fact the other physical beings have their own identity structures comprising of disposition, their own physical beings and their own heritage (which may or may not be shared heritage with others). To believe that merely by thinking positively and by instrumentalizing that positive thinking in your behavior ; others will start exhibiting positive thought and actions is delusional for it ignores the concept of individual free will.
The Positive thinking movement in popular culture and psychology
Like all bubble gum philosophies and corporatized self-help movements, this movement originated in the United States. In 1936, a gentleman called Dale Carnegie published his book “How to win friends and influence people”. Basically, the book was a guide to manipulating others by putting on a happy, triumphant and assertive act. The movement gained speed with modern bestsellers like “The Power of Positive thinking”. This particular book was a self-centered treatise on how thinking positively could change the world and the physical interactions between components of this world around us. Another popular book in this legacy was “Think and Grow Rich.” by Napolean Hill. The fundamental premise of all these books and many others was this: It’s all in the mind. If you think positively, positive things will happen to you. In India, this philosophy is expressed rather benignly in common phrases like “ accha accha socho accha sochoge toh accha hi hoga” or “Jo hota hai acche ke liye hi hota hai”.
The positive thinking industry, up until the 90’s had tiny academic backing in the way of specific areas of research. In the 90’s this weakness was addressed by the establishment of the positive psychology movement. In its initial years, the positive psychology movement gained reputation through its research work. Many consultancy companies were set up to apply this academic research to corporate environments. Another contribution of the positive psychology movement to corporations was to convince companies to establish the role of Chief Happiness Officer. But it hasn’t been all milk and honey for the positive psychology movement. There has been a lot of research in the last decade that has debunked the positive psychology movement and its assertions about the efficacy of positive psychology. The popular media in the west has picked up this wide ranging critique of the positive psychology movement and written about it as well. As this recent article points out, a research paper ; published in the journal “Emotion” concludes that “ when people think others expect them not to feel negative emotions (i.e., sadness) they experience more negative emotion and reduced well-being.” Another research study, published in the journal “Psychological Science” concludes that “repeating positive self-statements may benefit certain people, but backfire for the very people who “need” them the most.” Other researchers, such as the social psychologist Joseph Forgas have concluded through their research that people in a negative mood (in popular culture also known as foul mood) tend to argue more persuasively and are less prone to stereotyping others and acting on those stereotypes.
While there has been a lot of structured critique both in academia and in the popular media on the positive thinking movement in the West, there has been none in India. Instead, what we get to read in the popular media in India are sugar coated and badly researched articles such as this one . There are now even publications that combine this philosophy along with other “spiritual” products and services and disguise them as packaged self-help advice that can make your life better.
The strategies used by the positive thinking industry:
As with all movements and philosophies the positive thinking movement has transformed into an industry in itself. The result of this industrialization has meant not only standardization of language but also the commercialization of the movement itself. The industry has smartly developed strategies to ensure its long term survival and economic evolution. Some such strategies include:
a) Transforming suffering into a rite of passage: This is manifested in the way the positive thinking industry refers to physical and emotional suffering. The approach is not to empathize, analyze and reflect. The focus here is to make subscribers believe that their suffering is a part of the journey to a better future. And the only way they will be able to cope with it is to think of themselves as survivors. The rite of passage approach also needs a well-articulated mythology to convince people that this approach is the best suited to their condition. This mythology is constructed using symbols, stories and narratives that convey the message that the rite of passage is worth the outcome. And the outcome is always positive. A happily ever after.
b) Gratefulness as a coping strategy: For the more religiously inclined, the positive thinking industry focuses on gratefulness as a coping strategy. The underlying message here is that God has chosen you to suffer because of two reasons: 1) It is a test of your faith in the creator 2) You are chosen amongst billions of others because the creator thinks you are special.
In both cases, the positive thinking industry posits that you must be grateful to God because you are unique and special. The focus is on you being the chosen one or one amongst a select few. And for this, you must be grateful to god because he has a special place for you in his scheme of things.
c) Seeing suffering as an opportunity: Another way the industry articulates its philosophy is by convincing its subscribers to see suffering as opportunity. And this opportunity is yours for the taking if you choose to take it. This is where other allied experts some in. Let’s take an example: Let’s say you have been unemployed for a few months. This is making you depressed as you haven’t been able to get a job and continue to struggle. The positive thinking industry will ask you to not worry and stay happy. They will ask you to look at this challenging stage in your life as an opportunity. And they will define opportunity based on the type of allied experts they have partnered with and; your ability to pay to solve your problem. The solutions could range from benign interventions such as resume redesign to certain advanced ones as personality development programs.
Positive thinking in the corporate world:
a) The cheerleader effect: In the corporate world, positive thinking transforms itself into sympathetic cheerleading for company policies and management. This cheerleading is also often confused with loyalty and seen as a prerequisite to success. Any view that is critical of the management’s policies is seen as dissent and invites implicit punishment through instruments such as reduction in responsibilities, sidelining of critical voices within project teams and even social boycott by people who do not want to be seen socializing with a critical voice. In teams, this cheerleading often promotes group think and negatively affects group performance. As this study has shown, having a vocal minority that has the sensitivity to see differences and recognize conflict and communicate honestly about differences improves group performance. Another pitfall of the cheerleading phenomenon is that it breeds social pompousness amongst the cheerleaders. The most pertinent example of the deleterious effects of the cheerleading and positive thinking phenomenon was manifested in the 2008 economic crisis in the United States. Despite warnings from a few credible economic experts on the looming sub-prime mortgage crisis, the financial industry continued to engage in risky decisions and became increasingly arrogant and pompous. One example of this social pompousness of the cheerleaders was their calling Raghuram Rajan an “anti-market luddite” after his speech that warned of a potential crisis at a conference in 2005. In India, this positive thinking attitude towards the economy; largely centered on GDP growth has ignored two structural economic problems: The Housing market and Non-performing assets in the banking industry.
b) Hierarchy amplification and discrimination: Another way in which positive thinking and its physical manifestation effects the corporate world is by amplifying hierarchies. Junior staff is expected to have a positive demeanor in the most challenging situations and they are not expected to exhibit emotions of disagreement and even disgust. This is not true of senior level staff members and executives. They are allowed a lot more leeway in expressing emotions related to anger, disgust and disappointment. In other words, the lower you are in the corporate food chain, the less emotional range you are supposed to have. And within the narrow band of the emotional range you are allowed to have, only positive emotions are expected to exist.
Positive thinking as a political tool:
The strategies of the positive thinking industry have also been used extensively as a political tool to avoid objective scrutiny of party positions and government policies. As has been evident in recent years in India, positive election campaigns have been more successful in bringing parties to power than negative campaigns focused on attacking the opponent. While this hypothesis may be true to a large extent, the fact is that most positive election campaigns have focused more on the theme of positivity and less on the substance of policy positions. In the 2014 elections, the BJP’s main campaign message “acche din aane waale hain” is a classic example of a theme that evokes positive emotions but does very little to address issues. The message itself talks about a future filled with good times. What it doesn’t tell you (and the entire electoral campaign doesn’t tell you either) is what specific mechanisms would be used to correct current structural deficiencies in order to bring “acche din”. The reason specific mechanisms are deliberately not mentioned is that it takes a lot more effort to articulate them in a coherent, easy to understand format which is then open to critical analysis. A message like “acche din…” on the other hand, requires far less effort and does not naturally lend itself to being analyzed using a cause-effect methodology. The message of “acche din…” also enables the campaign to then use strategies employed by the positive thinking industry more creatively. For example, your passionate participation in the campaign (either as an active worker on the ground or as an advocate on the social media) is promoted as a rite of passage to the ultimate goal of acche din. Your active advocacy and campaigning obviously eats into personal and professional time. Sometimes, it also involves unpleasant exchanges with friends and acquaintances. Unless the political party implicitly conveys to its supporters that all these experiences are a rite of passage to achieve the ultimate goal, it won’t be able to sustain a campaign.
Is this is placebo? What’s the real thing?
A placebo is simply a substance or a compound that mimics the side-effects of the drug but lacks its specific assumed therapeutic or healing effect. As I have argued, the positive thinking movement can have various long-term deleterious effects on individuals and institutions. However, prolonged healing outcomes in the context of physical and emotional suffering and institutional culture are neither well documented nor persuasively argued with scientific rigor.
The positive thinking movement is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing for all varieties of social, emotional, financial and political healers because it sometimes helps disguise incorrect diagnosis of persistent problems. It is a curse for the scientifically inclined because it often comes in conflict with the process of evaluating real effects of social, policy and resource based interventions.
The solution is not to move to the other end of the spectrum. Not be pessimistic or cynical towards everything that happens around us. The solution is to develop and nurture skepticism .This requires developing the ability to detect biases, developing a balance between logic and intuition and playing the devil’s advocate. Ultimately, it is about making an effort to understand systemic causes of problems and understanding how we can play a role in correcting even a small part of the systemic cause and; accepting the fact that our individual contribution can potentially fail to correct anything at all.
The positive thinking philosophy places the individual at the center of his moral and physical universe. And the individual, through prolonged engagement with this philosophy becomes an ideological slave to his or her own self-image. The only way to end this slavery is to stop believing that we are the center of our universe.
