Neuroscience
When my dear friend and colleague, Roger Brown, was alive he used to say that to him, I define the edge of the optimism continuum. I think my outlook explains my choice of research topics. Instead of describing what is, most of my work is aimed at exploring what might be. In my most recent book - Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility - I explicitly discuss extending what we take as limits to our physical health and well being. I don’t understand why I’m so confident that we’ve just scratched the surface of what our consciousness is capable, but every year and every experiment I do makes me more certain that the future will only vaguely resemble the past in this regard. I don’t know how I came to these views, or whether in the long run people like me will “win or lose” to the cynics. One thing I do know, however, is while the future unfolds and we find out, people like me are having a better time as we consider all sorts of possibility. So, I remain optimistic about being optimistic.
Ellen Langer is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. She has received many honours for her work, including the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest from the American Psychological Association.
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Return to menu for One Nagging Thing.
- Ellen Langer: Combating Ageism
Among other things, I've researched and written about aging for the past thirty years. My belief is that much of what we attribute to the aging process can be prevented or reversed and that a major culprit in unsuccessful aging is our condescending...
- Marilyn Davidson: Lost Opportunities
One nagging thing I still don’t understand about myself is why I didn’t ask my grandparents before they died, more about their childhoods? “Grandpa (R), you’re 100 now but what was it like being born in 1900 into a world where man couldn’t fly...
- Elizabeth Loftus: Nightmares
After struggling mightily, and not particularly successfully, to have a thought about this, I broached a Friday after-work happy hour group and asked them what they would say about themselves. To a person, each looked uncomfortable with the mere question....
- Norbert Schwarz: Incidental Feelings
One nagging thing I don’t understand about myself is why I’m still fooled by incidental feelings. Some 25 years ago Jerry Clore and I studied how gloomy weather makes one’s whole life look bad -- unless one becomes aware of the weather and attributes...
- Is The Benefit Of Exercise A Placebo Effect?
The next time you're doing the housework, try donning a tracksuit, cranking up the Rocky sound-track and viewing the whole thing as an exercise session – doing so could have a positive effect on your health. That's according to Alia Crum and...
Neuroscience
Ellen Langer: Optimism
When my dear friend and colleague, Roger Brown, was alive he used to say that to him, I define the edge of the optimism continuum. I think my outlook explains my choice of research topics. Instead of describing what is, most of my work is aimed at exploring what might be. In my most recent book - Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility - I explicitly discuss extending what we take as limits to our physical health and well being. I don’t understand why I’m so confident that we’ve just scratched the surface of what our consciousness is capable, but every year and every experiment I do makes me more certain that the future will only vaguely resemble the past in this regard. I don’t know how I came to these views, or whether in the long run people like me will “win or lose” to the cynics. One thing I do know, however, is while the future unfolds and we find out, people like me are having a better time as we consider all sorts of possibility. So, I remain optimistic about being optimistic.
Ellen Langer is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. She has received many honours for her work, including the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest from the American Psychological Association.
--
Return to menu for One Nagging Thing.
- Ellen Langer: Combating Ageism
Among other things, I've researched and written about aging for the past thirty years. My belief is that much of what we attribute to the aging process can be prevented or reversed and that a major culprit in unsuccessful aging is our condescending...
- Marilyn Davidson: Lost Opportunities
One nagging thing I still don’t understand about myself is why I didn’t ask my grandparents before they died, more about their childhoods? “Grandpa (R), you’re 100 now but what was it like being born in 1900 into a world where man couldn’t fly...
- Elizabeth Loftus: Nightmares
After struggling mightily, and not particularly successfully, to have a thought about this, I broached a Friday after-work happy hour group and asked them what they would say about themselves. To a person, each looked uncomfortable with the mere question....
- Norbert Schwarz: Incidental Feelings
One nagging thing I don’t understand about myself is why I’m still fooled by incidental feelings. Some 25 years ago Jerry Clore and I studied how gloomy weather makes one’s whole life look bad -- unless one becomes aware of the weather and attributes...
- Is The Benefit Of Exercise A Placebo Effect?
The next time you're doing the housework, try donning a tracksuit, cranking up the Rocky sound-track and viewing the whole thing as an exercise session – doing so could have a positive effect on your health. That's according to Alia Crum and...