In your average children's movie, people dream outlandish dreams I wish I could be part of that world Cheney, I wish for you to make me a prince And then, after 90 minutes of struggle and sound effects, they achieve those dreams Woo! Hang on! We did it! In the end, Charlie Bucket on a chocolate factory It worked!
The ship's running! We think of these stories as fantasies, fairy tales But what science could help make our deepest hopes and desires seem less out of reach? Today, as part of our U 2.0 series, we bring you an episode from our archive that asks Is there a methodical way to achieve your dreams? Turns out, there is.
And this scientific technique has an acronym Whoop! Starting a business is tough Shopify makes it easier Build a beautiful store, write with AI And manage marketing, inventory and shipping all in one place Join millions who trust Shopify to launch and grow their business effortlessly If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify Turn your big business idea into Sign up for your 1 euro per month trial at Shopify.ie Go to Shopify.ie It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side At Vodafone, you get more, like more than more Get the brand new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra for 0 euro Plus, get more peace of mind with an extra 12-month warranty When you switch to our unlimited bill pay mobile plan Now that's a whole lot more Vodafone, together we can Subject to availability, eligibility and switching for 24 months, 65 euro per month Unlimited bill pay plan by 30th of June, 2026 Each April, the price of your plan will increase by 3 or 50 per month For full term, see Vodafone.ie forward slash terms I'm afraid of my shoes Real life is a lot King-cut meals means eating well doesn't need to be I'm Connor and I'm Mijo We make king-cut meals for people who want to eat well Without making a whole king of it Chef design, breakfast, lunch and dinner options Light protein, balanced and delicious Ready for real life Clean-cut meals, you look for real life in super value and centra This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Kedantham There's so much in our popular culture about the power of positive thinking We're often told to follow our hearts, to dream big You can have, do or be anything you want Whatever belief you hold in your subconscious mind Will become your reality, bottom line Value yourself and believe in yourself Because believing that the dots will connect down the road Will give you the confidence to follow your heart Even when it leads you off a well-worn path But now, researcher Gabrielle Etienne says Maybe we should all dream a little smaller Positive fantasies and daydreams, as pleasurable they are They have a problem when it comes to fulfilling our wishes and attaining our goals Gabrielle is a professor at New York University And author of the book, Rethinking Positive Thinking Inside the New Science of Motivation She's from Germany And she said growing up, no one told her to shoot for the stars I was raised in Europe And a year of big dreams, big hopes Was, if at all, more implicit than explicit When she came to the United States though Gabrielle noticed a real cultural difference Well, when I came to America, it was wonderful Because people always said Yes, do it Yes, that's possible Yeah, okay, this is a good idea Why don't you do it? Whereas back in Europe, people were more cautious And said, you know, are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure this is possible?
So I was really happy to come to America Because people were just sort of encouraging whatever idea you had So yes, positive thinking Indulging in fantasies about the future It does feel good But when Gabrielle Etienne began to research this topic She found something interesting Well, these positive fantasies They seduce us to feel already accomplished And they take our energy away So we found that, for example The more positively women enrolled in a weight reduction program The fewer pounds they lost Three months later, one year later, two years later Or the more positively university graduates Fantasize about an easy transition into work life The fewer dollars they earned two years later The fewer job offers they had gotten And also the fewer job applications they had sent out Or take students The more positively they fantasized about getting a good grade In their exam The less well they did Or the more positively they fantasized about getting together With a crushee The less likely they were to actually get in a romantic relationship Or take the health domain Same thing The more positively hip replacement surgery patients Fantasized about an easy recovery The less well could they move their joint The fewer steps they could take And the less well they recovered from the surgery So when you look at each of these cases I'm wondering if you could tell me what you mean by a positive fantasy So let's take the student, for example Who's hoping to go out on a date With someone that he or she likes You're sort of imagining, for example Going out on a date Things going really well Is the other person really liking you as much as you like them? Yeah, that's a good question, actually It's not so easy to measure these fantasies So what we did is We gave participants a short story So, for example In the case of the people who had a crush on someone else A short story Describing how they meet this person And they then needed to end that story And that story could either end positively Or it could end not so positively So then participants fantasized And wrote down their fantasies About the ending of the story The less likely it was that they actually got together With the person they were in love So the idea really is The more idealized, the more positively people fantasize The less well they do Because they don't put in the effort needed To actually reach the goals and fulfill the wishes Now, is it the case that people recovering For example, hip replacement surgery When they have positive fantasies of walking At one level you would have to say This is deeply, deeply understandable You feel like you can't do the things that you're used to doing You want to get back on your feet And you want to dream of the day When you would be able to walk or climb stairs or run without cane Are you saying that that's a bad thing? No, I'm not saying it's a bad thing Actually, we have very nice data showing That these positive fantasies They actually come out of a person's needs And you're completely right A person who has a surgery And who used to be able to walk Feels a need to walk like before And there the positive fantasies come from And I don't say these are bad things at all Because they are the beginning of action But they're only the beginning They give action the direction But they don't give action the necessary energy In fact, when we induce participants To positively fantasize To ideally depict the positive future Then we find that the blood pressure goes down And then we find that the feelings of energization go down And we find that people feel already accomplished So they relax They relax Because mentally They're already there There's something terribly sad about this Which is that the person imagines a happy future Perhaps because they're not very happy at the present But by so doing They in some ways deprive themselves Of the energy and motivation they need To make their futures actually better And thereby make their futures worse It feels like a vicious cycle Well, it is not so sad If you consider That if you actually complement These positive fantasies With considerations Of what stands in the way What is it in you That stands in the way That you actually fulfill your wishes And attain your goals That then You actually get the energy And if these goals are attainable Then you really go for it When we come back We'll talk about the next steps To make that daydream a reality Do you think about the next four weeks Now in the next four weeks What is your most important wish Stay with us Starting a business is tough Shopify makes it easier Build a beautiful store Write with AI And manage marketing, inventory, and shipping All in one place Join millions who trust Shopify To launch and grow their business effortlessly If you're ready to sell You're ready for Shopify Turn your big business idea into Sign up for your 1€ per month trial At Shopify.ie Go to Shopify.ie It's time to see what you can accomplish With Shopify by your side At Vodafone You get more Like more than more Get the brand new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra With 0€ Plus Get more peace of mind With an extra 12-month warranty When you switch to our unlimited bill pay mobile plan Now that's a whole lot more Vodafone Together with Han Subject to availability Eligibility and switching For 24 months 65€ per month Unlimited bill pay plan By 30th of June 2026 Each April the price of your plan Will increase by 3 or 50 per month For full term see Vodafone.ie For slash firms The bank holiday is finally here Enjoy summer savers at Centra With great offers Like Centra Fresh Air Strip-Royant State 2-pack Only 8-0 Offer ends Sunday Selected Pringles 165-gram 175 each Plus Diet Coke and Coke 0-12-gram packs Only 6-0 each Plus deposit Bank holiday value sorted Centra Live every day Gabri Ledean has found That positive thinking Fantasies in a very Productive way And you call it Mental contrasting What is mental contrasting? Mental contrasting is a strategy To fulfill your wishes And attain your goals So you first identify a wish A wish that is very dear to you So for example You think about the next four weeks Now in the next four weeks What is your most important wish?
Can be a professional wish Can be an interpersonal wish Can be a health wish This wish should be A wish that is a little Challenging for you But that you actually Can fulfill yourself Now identify that wish And keep it in front of your mind What you do then Is you think about What would be the best thing The best outcome If I fulfill myself That wish And once you identify that And put it in front of your mind Then you imagine that best thing If you recognize now Imagining the best thing Is like positively fantasizing These are the positive daydreams We were just talking about But then instead of Carrying on with these Positive fantasies You now switch gears And you say to yourself Actually What stops me From fulfilling my wish And experiencing that outcome? What is it in me That stands in the way? What is my inner obstacle? What is it in me?
And then once you identified Your inner obstacle And you need a little bit of humor And a little bit of honesty To yourself Sometimes it's not so pleasant You don't need to tell anybody But you can identify that obstacle And then you say to yourself If that obstacle occurs Then I will Show a behavior Or think a thought To overcome that obstacle So if obstacle Then I will Behavior to overcome obstacle And that's what in the science language Is called mental contrasting With implementation intentions And forget this complicated name It's called In the science literature Also MCII But we renamed it now And it's called now Whoop For wish First we started with a wish Outcome We then went on to Identify that outcome And imagine that outcome Obstacle Remember the obstacle Identify the obstacle Imagine the obstacle And then the plan The if obstacle Then I will overcome Plan And that's called Whoop I asked Gabrielle How she would apply her strategy To someone who has a crush On another person But instead of doing something about it Is just sitting around daydreaming About a blissful honeymoon What would that person do If they wanted to use Mental contrasting Or whoop So let's say You have a young person Who's interested in another person And so the wish would be You know I want to go with him Or with her On a date And want to explore A little bit deeper What that person is all about So that would be the wish The best outcome Might be something like You know We would have a really good time And we would feel Kind of in harmony But then the person Would change gears and say What is it in me That stands in the way That I actually Fulfill my wish That I ask this person out For a date And experience the harmony So what is it in me That stands in the way And then the person might discover I might feel too shy Or I'm a little bit anxious Reluctant to get a rejection And then the person can elaborate On that shyness to be rejected Or that fear of rejection Can really elaborate on it Kind of understand Oh yeah this fear That's my obstacle And after that The person could think What can I do To overcome this fear of rejection So what can the person do The person can sort of understand Well if the person rejected me Then I'm there where I'm right now Because if I don't talk to that person I don't I will not meet that person anyway So I can't really lose anything And then here she could do The if-then plan If I feel that fear of rejection Then I will tell myself Just go to that person And approach him or her Because I can't lose anything And then the person Will non-consciously Outside of awareness Approach that person By sort of overcoming One's fears of rejection One of the things That I find so striking Is that third step Doesn't involve saying What are the obstacles in my path But you ask What are the obstacles in me That prevent me from achieving this goal That's correct Because the obstacles in me Doesn't allow me To come up with all these excuses So if I say What are the obstacles in my path I could say Well this person Is in a different building Or whatever Or studies a different topic Or I don't have the time Or I'm just busy right now All these excuses They fall away If you ask What is it in you That stands in the way What is it really That stands in the way Now you extract the information Out of that negative feedback Without getting hurt So you don't take it personally But you take the information Encompassed in this negative feedback And you use it To make the correct plans Has mental contrasting Changed anything that you do? Well I'm using Whoop On a daily basis And we have devised Next to the book We have devised an app Which gives you The instructions Of mental contrasting With implementation intentions Or Whoop So it leads you Through the four steps Wish, outcome, obstacle, plan And interestingly enough I thought I'm an expert on Whoop But I'm using the app Every day actually I'm using the app Because it forces me To specify my wish To specify my outcome To imagine the outcome To specify my inner obstacle To imagine the inner obstacle And to form a very specific If obstacle Then I will Behaviour to overcome Obstacle plan So I do it every morning Other people do it in the evening Or during lunch break Or when they wait for the bus Or in the subway What you need though For doing Whoop You need to have a quiet moment For yourself You can be in the subway When everybody's talking But you need to be uninterrupted You can't do your email You can't talk to someone While you're doing Whoop So you need to have A moment for yourself Where you think What is my wish? What is my wish for today? Or you might think What is my wish for the next four weeks?
Or what do I want in life? What is it really that I want? So you can whoop Very big wishes Or you can whoop trivial wishes But what is important, it needs to be a wish which is dear to your heart. And the nice thing with whoop is that it also allows you to finally think about what do I really want.
Gabrielle Etienne is a professor of psychology at New York University. This episode of Hidden Brain was produced by Maggie Penman and Max Nestrack. Our team includes Jennifer Schmidt, Raina Cohen, Lucy Perkins, Parth Shah, and Renee Klar. Our supervising producer is Tara Boyle.
This week's unsung hero is Jessica Goldstein, who's the director of events and strategic initiatives at NPR. Jessica helped with our live taping in Aspen a few weeks ago. She's someone who dots the I's and crosses the T's, and then goes back and double-checks everything. Thanks, Jessica.
One last thing before we go, we're working on a story about male friendships. This new research suggests that many men, especially over the age of 50, find themselves with fewer friends and intimate relationships than they had in their 20s and 30s. Loneliness and social isolation are powerful determinants of health and well-being. If you're a man over the age of 50 who's willing to share with us a story about the effect that loneliness has on your life, please give us a call at 661-772-7246.
That's 661-77-BRAIN. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us at hiddenbrain at npr.org. Again, that's hiddenbrain, one word, at npr.org. And thanks.
I'm Shankar Ketantham, and this is NPR. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your 1-euro-per-month trial at Shopify.ie.
Go to Shopify.ie. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. At Vodafone, you get more, like more than more. Get the brand new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra for 0 euro.
Plus, get more peace of mind for the next 12-month warranty when you switch to our unlimited bill pay mobile plan. Now that's a whole lot more. Vodafone, together we can. Subject to availability, eligibility, and switching to our 24-month-65-euro-per-month unlimited bill pay plan by 30th of June, 2026.
Each April, the price of your plan will increase by 3-050 per month. For full term, see Vodafone.ie forward slash terms.