Hello!
I’ve got a pretty special one here for you today.
The new study we'll be breaking down is all about passion in the workplace and it's fresh from the business schools of Harvard and Columbia.
But here's the cool part: Harvard Professor Jon M. Jachimowicz, who helped conduct the study, personally sent over a copy for us, and even kindly took the time to offer some additional context and references!
So a huge thanks to Professor Jachimowicz and his colleagues for making this week's content extra super.
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
The "Passionate Pygmalion Effect": When Passion Motivates Others To Give You An Edge
🔷 Executive Summary — A new study from Harvard & Columbia finds that people who are perceived as passionate at work get special treatment. They are rewarded for their workplace wins with more positive feedback, more opportunities, and better relationships, which leads to even greater success. A self-fulfilling passion prophecy.
⭐️ The Significance
You'll often hear "passion" credited as the key driving force behind successful figures like Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey.
It's an idea that has been widely embraced—a recent study found that college-educated workers believe passion is even more important than pay and job security!
But is it really that beneficial to pursue and express your passion in your career?
Well, it certainly seems so. Recent meta-analyses have linked passion to higher job performance, greater motivation, and protection from burnout.
But this new study suggests that some of these benefits might come from the way other people treat you when you express your passion!
Expressing passion causes other people to give you special treatment which only further amplifies the power of your passion.
The name of this phenomenon?
"The Passionate Pygmalion Effect".
🧪 The Study
Researchers analyzed interactions between employees and managers across three separate experiments. A total of 1508 participants took part.
They used both real and fictional performance reviews to examine how passion affects four social factors at work:
the positivity of feedback that employees receive;
the quality of the relationship between managers and employees;
the support and opportunities offered to employees, and;
how employees are perceived when they succeed and fail.
They controlled for several confounding variables, which is a fancy way of saying they extracted the effects of performance, age, gender, and personality, etc, to isolate the impact of passion alone on these four factors.
⚡️ The Findings
A whole host of powerful advantages were bestowed upon passionate employees across the three experiments:
Passionate employees were given significantly more positive feedback for performing well compared to less passionate employees. They received a much bigger pat on the back for the same level of performance.
Supervisors formed better relationships with more passionate employees and were more likely to promote them, give them training opportunities, and offer them support.
Managers had a more positive emotional reaction when passionate employees were on a downward trajectory. For instance, managers were more likely to respond with surprise and sympathy in response to setbacks.
Finally, a positive attribution bias was bestowed upon passionate employees—any dip in their performance was more likely to be blamed on factors other than their level of effort (bad luck, etc). These findings suggest that other people will give you more leeway to fail and allow you to bounce back faster when you're passionate.
💎 The Takeaway
Passion can act as a powerful performance enhancer in the workplace. This new study reveals that this effect is partly because of how other people reward you for your enthusiasm.
When you’re passionate, you’re more likely to get positive feedback on your successes, form better relationships with others, be provided with more opportunities, and receive more support during performance dips.
In this way, passion can effectively initiate a positive feedback loop where you perform better, get rewarded more strongly for your success, and then experience even greater performance as a result.
Ultimately, cultivating and expressing passion for what you do can give you an edge. And now we know that some of that edge comes from the outside in.
🔍 The Limitations
It’s possible that passion has to be genuine in order to have a positive effect. Or at least appear to be. Recent research found that people may be judged even more harshly than otherwise if their passion is judged to be inauthentic!
A few further interesting caveats from Professor Jachimowicz's previous research:
the effects of passion are weaker when it's expressed in an inappropriate manner/context.
it's weaker when observers disagree with the person expressing passion.
competitors may find your expressions of passion as threatening and decrease the support they offer you.
A big thank you to Harvard Professor Jon M. Jachimowicz for generously sharing a copy of this fascinating new study, and for providing extra context and references.
SUPER SNIPPETS
🧠 The Beneficent Seven— New research from the American Academy of Neurology maps out seven science-backed, healthy habits for lowering the risk of dementia:
being active;
eating better;
losing weight;
not smoking;
maintaining healthy blood pressure;
controlling cholesterol, and;
reducing blood sugar.
For each one-point increase in lifestyle factor score, there was a 9% lower risk of developing dementia, even for those who were genetically predisposed.
🏃♀️Run For Your Brain —A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that mice who exercised daily on a running wheel for 30 days produced 40% higher dopamine levels in their brains, compared to a control group who did not exercise.
Notably, their dopamine levels remained elevated even after one week of not exercising. This suggests that regular running can lead to a brain that is more generally rich in dopamine. There was also a 60% increase in BDNF—a neurochemical that plays a key role in learning.
The takeaway? Install a giant running wheel in your home, obviously.
🍷 Sobering Science — Recent research hints at a reckoning of global alcohol consumption guidelines. A new study found that 7-14 units a week of alcohol—up to two bottles of 12.5% wine or seven 500 mL cans of 4.5% beer—was associated with a 4.5x increased risk of worsening heart health. For context, the UK’s current NHS recommendation allows for up to 14 units per week.
The Study’s Suggestion (for heart health): If you do drink, limit your weekly consumption to less than one bottle of wine or less than three-and-a-half 500 ml cans of 4.5% beer.
☕️ Espresso For Life — Oh, and yet another study found that people who drink coffee live longer. 171,000 coffee-drinking Brits were 30% less likely to die during a 7-year period compared to those who somehow managed to get through their days without any.
💡 Sneak Preview Of New Exercise Study —
NEW & NOTEWORTHY CONTENT
📖 [CHANGING OTHERS] — This Is How To Get People To Change: 5 Secrets From Research — Eric Barker
Eric’s new article breaks down the most effective, science-backed tool for helping other people change: motivational interviewing.
“People are simultaneously smarter and dumber than you think. They often know what they’re doing is bad. They’re not usually lacking information. The issue is motivation. Overcoming ambivalence. Once people get motivated, they often make the change themselves with little help.”
(This article also accidentally explains why a great coach can be so effective!)
9 minute read
📖 [CHANGING YOURSELF] — Become Your New Habit — Zen Habits
We create little escape hatches for ourselves when we try to change. “I won’t workout today, because I'm not feeling it”, or… “just one more smoke and then I’ll quit”.
But if you can change how you see yourself, then you can close all of those little escape hatches, and create a new you. Once and for all.
2 minute read
🎙 [COGNITION] — Dr. Wendy Suzuki: Boost Attention & Memory with Science-Based Tools— The Huberman Lab Podcast
Dr. Wendy Suzuki, Ph.D., is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at NYU. This fascinating discussion dives into Suzuki's personal health struggles, and covers her latest (yet-to-be-released) research with implications for learning, health, mood, focus, memory, and cognitive ability.
1 hour 45 minute listen
🎙 [WELLBEING] — Happiness Expert Returns: Retrain Your Brain For Maximum Happiness: Mo Gawdat — Diary of a CEO
Steven Bartlett's favorite guest returns. Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer of Google X, the ‘moonshot’ division behind its most exciting and futuristic projects. The two discuss the top three reasons for unhappiness, the economics of love, why you should break your life into themes, and much more. Have your notebook at the ready!
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!
LATEST BOOK RELEASE
The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success
by Ed Mylett
In The Power of One More, renowned keynote speaker and performance expert Ed Mylett draws on 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and coach to top athletes, entertainers, and business executives to reveal powerful strategies to help you live an extraordinary "one more" life.
In The Power of One More, you'll:
Learn why you're closer to your dreams and goals than you think and why using The Power of One More strategies will help you cross the finish line in whatever race you're running
Understand the psychology and science of how to use The Power of One More in every part of your life will help you solve problems and achieve levels of success you never thought possible
Discover time-tested and unique solutions to challenges that will remove the mental roadblocks you've been battling for years
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”
― Oprah Winfrey
Passionately,
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?