Today is a very busy day.
It’s Mother’s Day in the U.K. (shoutout to all the Mums reading)
National “Joe” Day (shoutout to all the Joes reading)
And it’s also Quentin Tarantino’s birthday. (… I don’t think he’s a subscriber yet so if someone could forward this to him that'd be great. Happy 59th QT.)
Oh and the clocks also went forward in the UK and we lost an hour of sleep so please excuse any typos.
There’s really only so much tea can do.
Welcome to Super Self, the free weekly newsletter that brings you the latest science for personal growth. A better you in just 5 minutes.
FEATURED SCIENCE
Let's Agree About Success: Nice People Finish First... 93% Of The Time
⭐️ The Significance
Do good guys win in the long run or do you need to be a ruthless jackass to make it to the top? A new meta analysis finds that playing nice is a winning strategy in almost every area of life!
… almost.
The new study examined how the personality trait “Agreeableness” affected a whopping 275 different life outcomes.
Agreeableness is mainly associated with helping others, but it breaks down into two main sub-traits:
Compassion — how much concern and empathy you have for others, your tendency to prioritize relationships and exhibit prosocial behavior.
Politeness — your tendency to cooperate, comply with social norms, and exhibit truthful, fair, and modest behavior.
(You can score high or low in both or high in one and low in the other. E.g. you care about others but hate being told what to do.)
In our favorite fairytales and Hollywood films, the good guys and gals always win in the end. But is that true in real life? Or is playing nice just a fast track to Loserville?
To settle this age old debate, the researchers went totally pedal to the metal and analyzed 142 separate meta analyses with a combined total of 3,900 studies and 1.9 million participants. Which is more than the entire population of Latvia!
Here’s what they found…
⚡️ The Findings
It turns out that nice people are definitely not losers. Agreeableness had a positive impact on a massive 93% of the variables studied. But there were a few key areas where agreeableness really shined through:
Wellbeing: A powerful recipe for happiness, agreeableness had a strong positive effect on —
Personal growth
Happiness
Quality of life
Purpose in life
Self acceptance
It also had a moderately positive effect on —
Life satisfaction.
Relationships: Agreeable people also seem to fare extremely well in relationships. Agreeableness has a seriously super strong effect on positive relations with others, and a moderately positive effect for:
Marital Satisfaction
Charisma
Intimate Partner Satisfaction
(I’ll leave the explanation for that last one up to your imagination!)
Work: This is where things get a little interesting. Because while being nice in the workplace comes with significant benefits, it has its limitations.
Firstly, the good — agreeableness was strongly associated with Competence and Motivation To Lead.
Agreeable people also tend to be "vigorous" and "dedicated" workers with a moderate effect on Employee Engagement.
And, interestingly, it also has a positive effect on Leadership which proves that nice leaders can be highly effective.
But sadly, being nice won’t get you everything. Agreeableness had a slightly negative impact on the following factors:
Productivity
Academic success
Employment status
Promotions
Salary
Agreeableness also had strong-moderate negative association with:
Goal setting
The desire for self enhancement
The drive for achievement
Finally, it had negligible effects on physical health and other factors such as creativity.
💎 The Takeaway
Whilst agreeableness probably won't do anything to get you a promotion or improve your health, this study definitively busts the myth that nice guys and gals guys finish last. For most aspects of life, playing well with others can certainly pay off dividends.
It leads to extremely potent benefits for mental wellbeing and relationships, and it can also prove advantageous in the workplace, namely around enhanced cooperation and leadership.
Did you hear that, 2022?
SUPER SNIPPETS
🌎 Silver Linings — The latest World Happiness Report just dropped with some cheery news. While they found that the pandemic led to an increase in pain and suffering (*gasp*), it also led to a major increase in social support and kindness!
“Helping strangers, volunteering, and donations in 2021 were strongly up in every part of the world, reaching levels almost 25% above their pre-pandemic prevalence.”
They also revealed the latest leaderboard for the world’s happiest countries. Finland was the big winner, coming in at 1st place for the fifth year running. Canada experienced one of the heaviest declines, dropping to 15th place (10 years ago it was 5th).*
Finland
Denmark
Iceland
Switzerland
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Sweden
Norway
Israel
New Zealand
Austria
Australia
Ireland
Germany
Canada
*Personally, I think the great 2021 maple syrup shortage is to blame.
🍫 You Go Cocoa — a new randomized controlled trial of 21,000 participants found that 500mg of a daily cocoa flavanol supplement reduced the rate of cardiovascular deaths by 27%. Unfortunately, the levels of cocoa in the study were beyond what you could “realistically consume from chocolate without adding excessive calories, fat, and sugar” to your diet.
And to that I say... challenge accepted.
✨ Faster, Stronger, Better — I’ve got an actual super power for you this week. A new study found that your ability to heal from wounds is strongly linked to “autophagy”. (Autophagy is basically where your body gets to play pacman — tiny bubbles zoom around inside your cells gobbling up old debris). These findings suggest that intermittent and extended fasting, both of which trigger autophagy, can speed up wound healing! Now hopefully they’ll start working on how to shoot spiderwebs from our hands.
🧬 Long Live The Zen — Researchers found that experienced meditators had a massive 38% higher concentration of "telomerase" in their bloodstream compared to non-meditators. Telomerase is a key enzyme for keeping your cells young and slowing the aging process. Add "youthful glow" to the ever-growing benefits of meditation.
🪴 Roses are red, violets are blue, household plants reduce NO2 — Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) is a common air pollutant. A new study found that household plants such as Peace Lillies, Corn Plants, and Fern Arums, were all able to reduce NO2 levels in a room by 20%.
🍷 One glass won’t… damnit — A study of 36,000 adults published in Nature Communications found that even light alcohol consumption is associated with brain shrinkage. It starts with less than one unit a day (about half a glass of wine) and rises with each additional drink.
🌅 Miracle Morning —
NEW & NOTEWORTHY CONTENT
📖 [WILLPOWER] — You Actually Should Do Something That Scares You Every Day — Ryan Holiday
"We do something difficult, something scary, something good every day. We do it to do it. We do it because we’re in charge. We do it so we can do it when it counts."
3 minute read
🎙 [SUGAR] — Controlling Sugar Cravings & Metabolism with Science-Based Tools — Huberman Lab
Professor Andrew Huberman took on the subject of sugar cravings last week. If you're not interested in all of the biology, skip ahead to around one hour into the episode. That's where he breaks down how Omega-3s, Glutamine, Lemon Juice, and other tools can help to reduce sugar cravings.
2 hour listen
💡 Did you hear, read, or watch some inspiring content published in the last two weeks relevant to personal growth? Help me improve this section for everyone by letting me know!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
― Proverb
Today is also Pretzel Sunday in Luxembourg.
Figured I'd save the best one til last.
Catch you next time,
Lewis 🦸🏻♂️
P.s. I've heard that forwarding this issue to a friend who might enjoy it will give you seven years of good karma. Who knows, worth a shot?