Dr. Ellen Langer

Dr. Ellen Langer has spent four decades studying the effects of thoughts on various things. Lectures like the one below are really eye opening. So much so that not everyone is on board with her findings. Some people have criticized some of her research. It’s also not hard to find studies like these that show that pessimists live longer, which seems to contradict her findings.

Still, I have to believe that there must be at least some truth after forty years of study. We all have heard stories about how quickly people age once they retire or go into assisted living. I’m sure everyone can think of an older person who has not retired or stopped racing and how vibrant they are “for their age.” It really does seem that if we think we are old we will start to get old. How come some centurions decide to go for the hour record? Perhaps by staying young at heart like Sinatra suggested.

I have also heard of a study from another psychologist (that I haven’t had success in finding) that has supposedly been replicated many times that showed that two groups of students would either walk out of school faster or slower based on the words that were used on their multiple choice test. The group whose test used younger and energetic verbiage left class at a faster walking speed. The group whose test had older and less energetic verbiage moved slower. Maybe Johnny Cash was onto something when he sang “Get Rhythm.”

There has to be something to this. I think this is more evidence that our thoughts have a major impact on many areas of our lives. For these reasons I’ve decided to include this video.