59 Seconds
Purchase 59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot
59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
Whilst :59 Seconds could be called a “self help” book, it may well be the most unusual one you will ever read. The intention of the book is to supply recommendations for improving your life which are effective, can be implemented very quickly (in 59 seconds) and are based on genuine academic research. This is a distinction that Wiseman would be keen to make here though as he is pretty disdainful about much of the advice that is promoted through the “self help industry”. Whereas he regards some of this to be unproven or even downright wrong, his own (rather quirky) advice is based on actual scientific research. Although it is obviously intended to help he wants it clearly understood that he is no Tony Robbins.
There are huge number of writers, coaches and entrepreneurs working in what could be termed the “self help industry”, covering everything from down-to-earth practical advice to NLP to meditation to (God help us) “healing with the angels”. Personally I think that is way too broad a spectrum to summarize into a phrase like “self help writers say THIS” when, in fact, they say all sorts of different things.
Anyway, I can agree with him that a lot of books can be less than rigorous when it comes to dealing with the facts and very vague when it come to the research that supports their advice. An example of this is an alleged experiment that took place on Yale Graduates in 1953, the point of the story being that the 3% who wrote down their goals achieved them whilst the others did not. This story is frequently repeated in personal development books as it neatly reinforces the point that writing down your goals helps you focus on them and is therefore, “a good thing”. This is all well and good but Wiseman states that there is no evidence at all that this experiment had ever taken place!* In contrast, all the evidence that Wiseman actually cites himself is carefully researched and footnoted – if he cites an experiment we get to know who conducted it, where, when and what the results were.
This is not to say that he is a nit-picking fuddy-duddy academic who is out to disprove everything as :59 Seconds is actually a lot of fun to read and does provide a great many constructive suggestions. The actual book is divided into chapters that cover familiar subjects such as motivation, persuasion and decision-making, although the subjects are familiar the advice on them can certainly take you by surprise. For instance, who would have thought that by putting a picture of a baby in your wallet you dramatically increase the chances of having it returned if you lose it? Or that regularly writing about a relationship with someone you love can reduce your cholesterol?
I was interested to read the research on the effects of “visual cues” on how much we eat.
Apparently, using smaller plates, taller glasses and placing a mirror in your kitchen all actually work as very powerful influences on how much you eat. Wiseman also details a bizarre experiment whereby certain soup bowls at a dinner party we specially designed so that they automatically refilled with soup as the dinner guest was eating. Because what we see before us is a powerful cue for when we have “had enough” or “feel full” the people eating from the magic soup bowls ate over 75% more than the other guests.
At various points you start to wonder what is going on in the universities that carry out these weird experiments. Do their bosses know? Did they mention the re-filling soup bowl when they applied for funding?
One of the interesting points that Wiseman’s book seems to make is that you have got to work with your mind as it actually is and use self help techniques which are proven to work. There are any number of books that claim you can start living a life of boundless success if you will only start doing this or that technique or strategy; Wiseman contends that there is only about 40% of your mind which is within your power to change (the other 60% being determined by genetics and the effects of general circumstances) and it will only do so if you follow proven rather than merely plausible techniques. The human mind does some strange, strange things and you have to be aware of this and work with it rather than apply ideas that seem to make sense but actually have no effect.
I would certainly recommend this book, even if you don’t follow a single one of his recommendations you will have great fun finding out how he arrived at them. Professor Wiseman’s other “big” book is “Quirkology” – if you haven’t read it you can get a flavour of it as the website (make sure you watch the colour card trick video!)
* Michael Neill has also made the same point about the alleged Yale experiment in his book “Supercoach”.
Like
