hi I’m yoga I work as a researcher here
at NYU Abu Dhabi and as a psychologist I
study the quirks of people’s mind I will
talk about where we sometimes want to
suffer to achieve our goals people spend
hours on the treadmill they get a tooth
and pierced and sensitive places they
blow a ton of money on things they don’t
need to impress people that don’t care
and for years I have been wondering why
that may be in and today I’d like to let
you in on a little secret
I’d like to tell you what we sometimes
choose to suffer it is all because of
one thing one peculiar quirk of mind it
is because we think there’s no pain
there’s no gain let me start by telling
you about something strange that
happened indeed County Florida in the
seventies when laundry detergents
containing phosphates were banned people
cleared the shelves they stocked up
large amounts and they even started to
smuggle the detergent from neighboring
counties we are driving but you might
actually know this feeling that the
moment you are told you can’t have
something you just wanted so badly this
is why chocolate seems so especially
delicious just when you started the diet
and this is why we cannot think about
anything else but our next meal when our
dentist tells us not to eat for half an
hour throughout their worst fears
research has shown that instances of
pain and suffering can actually result
of positive experiences and then the
following I’d like to give you a few
examples for instance have you ever
completed your workout in the gym and
thought it was so effective because you
aren’t pain because you’re so sore yeah
participants in one of my research
studies gave better ratings to a fitness
program when it was advertised as
painful they thought it was more
effective but there are other other
forms of pain besides physical pain
there’s also psychological pain such as
humiliation and some groups have their
new potential members go through
humiliating initiation rituals this can
happen in sororities or fraternities
where does more commonly called hazing
and also hazing is generally a negative
experience as a consequence the new
member actually ends up liking the group
more and spending money can hurt to
other researchers found that
participants who were randomly assigned
to pay more for an energy drink
perceived this energy drink to be more
effective and increasing mental
capabilities than participants who were
randomly assigned to pay less and what
was most remarkably and that study is
that participants who paid more for the
energy drink and drunkard they actually
were better and solving puzzles than
participants who paid less and since
another drink recently became 50% more
expensive he and the UAE I guess it
means he will have a bunch of geniuses
soon research has also found that
spiritual rituals that are complicated
are perceived as more effective than
simple ones that only involve a few
procedural steps this is why in fairy
tales
witches often have to go through a
complicated procedure to brew their
powerful potion 7 anti-clockwise turns
for frog eyes you get the idea in
general anything that demands effort
from us will perceived as an effective
means to a goal and that also results
and asked valuing things more when we
had to put a lot of effort into them for
example having to build your own
furniture makes you value it more which
is fittingly called the IKEA effect
having to stand in line for something
makes us value more whatever we queued
up for for instance a roller coaster
ride and
man park or the newest iPhone and also
having to wait for information makes us
believe this information was more useful
I actually keep wondering if customer
services have read all those research
papers think about it from my experience
but only do they make you wait for
information they also torture you with
the most annoying song they could find
when they finally decide to pick up the
phone they ask in the most humiliating
way have you tried turning it off and on
again it seems I’m not the only one who
knows his pain but jokes aside all these
examples show that we actually believe
in the idea of no pain no gain but why
is this a case why do we perceive our
actions as effective when we have pain
discomfort or monetary loss across all
these examples there’s one common
denominator whether the experiencing
physical or psychological pain the
moment we sacrifice important goals we
perceive our actions as effective all
these examples can be explained with one
single theory counter finality so what
is counter finality counter finality is
a specific configuration between a means
and our goals counter finality occurs
when we try to attain one of our goals
but hurt another goal in the process and
when the second goal is negatively
impacted the cognitive link to go one
becomes stronger and therefore we
perceive the messer the means for
attaining it as more effective I tested
the theory of counter finality in my own
research and I want to tell you about
like one study in particular that I
conducted for the study I looked for
people who have tattoos and I asked them
why did you get here – – and they listed
various reasons so for instance they
told me my goal was to look more
attractive or to remember certain life
event or to rebel and I also asked to
what extent they solve the head attains
goals and then I asked if getting
tattooed was also hurtful to other goals
they had and again I got various answers
such as yeah now it is more difficult to
date or to find a job or to make a
career but most interestingly the more
they saw that getting dead food hurt the
other goal
the more they believed that helped
attaining the primary goal the very goal
they got tattooed for and what is so
important about this study is that the
theory of counter finality holds no
matter what the actual content of the
goal was so independent of content
it was the mere configuration between a
means in this case getting tattooed that
helped attaining one goal looking more
attractive
it’s the expense of another goal gaining
employment that lead us to perceive the
means as more effective for the very
reason that another goal got hurt in the
process and in the same way counter
complicated rituals account a final to
the goal of convenience and therefore
perceived as more effective when dieting
eating chocolate goes against the goal
of losing weight and as therefore
perceived as more delicious or one more
technical grams effective for the goal
of food enjoyment the higher price
energy drink hurts the goal of saving
money and was therefore perceived as
more effective and increasing mental
capabilities but enough Siri how can we
put counter finality to practical news
it was found in the medical field that
Parkinson patients showed improved motor
function when they sought the medication
was more expensive and if the ceva
effects like this can be achieved just
by the inclusion of counter find
information such as side effects a
bitter taste and the quality of life of
others can be improved at virtually no
cost the notion of no pain no gain can
also be used in marketing
I conducted an experiment in which I
showed participants a mouthwash and I
had two groups of participants one group
learned that the mouthwash doesn’t burn
when rending however I told the other
group that it causes a burning sensation
participants in my study like the
burning mouthwash they thought it was
more effective and therefore it was more
in demand these findings actually
suggest for marketing to not always hide
or downplay negative product attributes
and finally the concept of counter
finality can also help us understand
adherents to unhealthy routines and yet
another research study that I conducted
I asked students if they neglect any
goals to study more intensely and as a
result I found when students neglect
import’ goals such as exercising or
spending time with friends and family
they actually perceived a study and
routine to be more effective and because
they perceived their unhealthy routines
to be so effective they even wanted to
maintain them so it is not so much that
we keep engaging in painful activities
despite the negative consequences but
more so because of them in understanding
this the concept of cardinality can
inform counseling and intervention
strategies and help disenchant those
unhealthy routines so next time you are
about to sacrifice some of your goals
stop and think maybe it is just an
illusion of the mind maybe you can
achieve the same with less pain all this
examples show that having to suffer for
our goals makes us believe we will
attain them and this is always sometimes
what to suffer to achieve our goals
thank you [Applause]
at NYU Abu Dhabi and as a psychologist I
study the quirks of people’s mind I will
talk about where we sometimes want to
suffer to achieve our goals people spend
hours on the treadmill they get a tooth
and pierced and sensitive places they
blow a ton of money on things they don’t
need to impress people that don’t care
and for years I have been wondering why
that may be in and today I’d like to let
you in on a little secret
I’d like to tell you what we sometimes
choose to suffer it is all because of
one thing one peculiar quirk of mind it
is because we think there’s no pain
there’s no gain let me start by telling
you about something strange that
happened indeed County Florida in the
seventies when laundry detergents
containing phosphates were banned people
cleared the shelves they stocked up
large amounts and they even started to
smuggle the detergent from neighboring
counties we are driving but you might
actually know this feeling that the
moment you are told you can’t have
something you just wanted so badly this
is why chocolate seems so especially
delicious just when you started the diet
and this is why we cannot think about
anything else but our next meal when our
dentist tells us not to eat for half an
hour throughout their worst fears
research has shown that instances of
pain and suffering can actually result
of positive experiences and then the
following I’d like to give you a few
examples for instance have you ever
completed your workout in the gym and
thought it was so effective because you
aren’t pain because you’re so sore yeah
participants in one of my research
studies gave better ratings to a fitness
program when it was advertised as
painful they thought it was more
effective but there are other other
forms of pain besides physical pain
there’s also psychological pain such as
humiliation and some groups have their
new potential members go through
humiliating initiation rituals this can
happen in sororities or fraternities
where does more commonly called hazing
and also hazing is generally a negative
experience as a consequence the new
member actually ends up liking the group
more and spending money can hurt to
other researchers found that
participants who were randomly assigned
to pay more for an energy drink
perceived this energy drink to be more
effective and increasing mental
capabilities than participants who were
randomly assigned to pay less and what
was most remarkably and that study is
that participants who paid more for the
energy drink and drunkard they actually
were better and solving puzzles than
participants who paid less and since
another drink recently became 50% more
expensive he and the UAE I guess it
means he will have a bunch of geniuses
soon research has also found that
spiritual rituals that are complicated
are perceived as more effective than
simple ones that only involve a few
procedural steps this is why in fairy
tales
witches often have to go through a
complicated procedure to brew their
powerful potion 7 anti-clockwise turns
for frog eyes you get the idea in
general anything that demands effort
from us will perceived as an effective
means to a goal and that also results
and asked valuing things more when we
had to put a lot of effort into them for
example having to build your own
furniture makes you value it more which
is fittingly called the IKEA effect
having to stand in line for something
makes us value more whatever we queued
up for for instance a roller coaster
ride and
man park or the newest iPhone and also
having to wait for information makes us
believe this information was more useful
I actually keep wondering if customer
services have read all those research
papers think about it from my experience
but only do they make you wait for
information they also torture you with
the most annoying song they could find
when they finally decide to pick up the
phone they ask in the most humiliating
way have you tried turning it off and on
again it seems I’m not the only one who
knows his pain but jokes aside all these
examples show that we actually believe
in the idea of no pain no gain but why
is this a case why do we perceive our
actions as effective when we have pain
discomfort or monetary loss across all
these examples there’s one common
denominator whether the experiencing
physical or psychological pain the
moment we sacrifice important goals we
perceive our actions as effective all
these examples can be explained with one
single theory counter finality so what
is counter finality counter finality is
a specific configuration between a means
and our goals counter finality occurs
when we try to attain one of our goals
but hurt another goal in the process and
when the second goal is negatively
impacted the cognitive link to go one
becomes stronger and therefore we
perceive the messer the means for
attaining it as more effective I tested
the theory of counter finality in my own
research and I want to tell you about
like one study in particular that I
conducted for the study I looked for
people who have tattoos and I asked them
why did you get here – – and they listed
various reasons so for instance they
told me my goal was to look more
attractive or to remember certain life
event or to rebel and I also asked to
what extent they solve the head attains
goals and then I asked if getting
tattooed was also hurtful to other goals
they had and again I got various answers
such as yeah now it is more difficult to
date or to find a job or to make a
career but most interestingly the more
they saw that getting dead food hurt the
other goal
the more they believed that helped
attaining the primary goal the very goal
they got tattooed for and what is so
important about this study is that the
theory of counter finality holds no
matter what the actual content of the
goal was so independent of content
it was the mere configuration between a
means in this case getting tattooed that
helped attaining one goal looking more
attractive
it’s the expense of another goal gaining
employment that lead us to perceive the
means as more effective for the very
reason that another goal got hurt in the
process and in the same way counter
complicated rituals account a final to
the goal of convenience and therefore
perceived as more effective when dieting
eating chocolate goes against the goal
of losing weight and as therefore
perceived as more delicious or one more
technical grams effective for the goal
of food enjoyment the higher price
energy drink hurts the goal of saving
money and was therefore perceived as
more effective and increasing mental
capabilities but enough Siri how can we
put counter finality to practical news
it was found in the medical field that
Parkinson patients showed improved motor
function when they sought the medication
was more expensive and if the ceva
effects like this can be achieved just
by the inclusion of counter find
information such as side effects a
bitter taste and the quality of life of
others can be improved at virtually no
cost the notion of no pain no gain can
also be used in marketing
I conducted an experiment in which I
showed participants a mouthwash and I
had two groups of participants one group
learned that the mouthwash doesn’t burn
when rending however I told the other
group that it causes a burning sensation
participants in my study like the
burning mouthwash they thought it was
more effective and therefore it was more
in demand these findings actually
suggest for marketing to not always hide
or downplay negative product attributes
and finally the concept of counter
finality can also help us understand
adherents to unhealthy routines and yet
another research study that I conducted
I asked students if they neglect any
goals to study more intensely and as a
result I found when students neglect
import’ goals such as exercising or
spending time with friends and family
they actually perceived a study and
routine to be more effective and because
they perceived their unhealthy routines
to be so effective they even wanted to
maintain them so it is not so much that
we keep engaging in painful activities
despite the negative consequences but
more so because of them in understanding
this the concept of cardinality can
inform counseling and intervention
strategies and help disenchant those
unhealthy routines so next time you are
about to sacrifice some of your goals
stop and think maybe it is just an
illusion of the mind maybe you can
achieve the same with less pain all this
examples show that having to suffer for
our goals makes us believe we will
attain them and this is always sometimes
what to suffer to achieve our goals
thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: