Bogus behavioral psych fads, many of which you believe

Almost as s a public service, Jesse Singal has investigated numerous famous frauds of social/behavioral psychology. These are the fashionable, authoritative life hacks that can be described in cute memes or no more than a simple declarative sentence. The kinds of hacks that have made millions for psychologists, and continue to, long after they have been proven wrong if not totally bogus, and even after their creators have admitted as much. It is a delicious overview of what is wrong with psychology and why its credibility bounces along the zero level. They make his book, The Quick Fix, a great, animated read. For some, it might even prove embarrassing.

Psychologists are always on the prowl for the quick fix. How to improve performance, limit gaffes, be more sensitive, more effective, more confident, more prominent, get the promotion or the raise, and so on. It has led to fad after fad, endless books by sudden experts on the topic, whole armies of life and career coaches, and numerous fortunes. But in essentially every case, to put it kindly, it’s not true.

Self-Esteem

Singal begins with self-esteem, a trend America has taken to unimaginable extremes. It is now institutional practice to assure every child s/he is not merely unique but the best possible person that could be. Everyone gets a…