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Dr. Crum clarifies the distinction between placebo effects and broader mindset/belief effects. She explains that while related, placebo effects are traditionally reserved for inactive substances, whereas belief effects encompass social context, mindsets, and natural physiological processes that can be triggered by beliefs alone, without a 'placebo' substance.
Andrew Huberman asks about the impact of mindset on sleep deprivation. Dr. Crum discusses a study where fake feedback about sleep quality affected cognitive performance, suggesting mindsets can influence the physiological effects of sleep. She acknowledges the real benefits of sleep but highlights that the extent to which mindset can 'push around' these effects is still an open question.
Andrew Huberman shares his personal take on sleep trackers, explaining that he prefers a subjective assessment of his sleep rather than relying on a numerical score from a device. He reasons that seeing a 'poor' score could negatively impact his mindset for the day, linking it to the discussions on belief effects.
Dr. Alia Crum defines mindsets as core beliefs or assumptions that shape our expectations, explanations, and goals, using stress as an example to illustrate how our view of something can profoundly affect our response to it.
Dr. Crum critiques the common public health approach to motivating exercise, which often focuses on telling people rigid guidelines. She argues that this approach is often not motivational and can even create a negative mindset, making people feel worse if they don't meet the requirements. She advocates for a more mindful approach that helps people appreciate and reap the benefits of the exercise they are already doing.
Dr. Crum discusses a study revealing that people's perception of their exercise levels relative to others can significantly predict death rates, sometimes more so than objective activity. She explains that these perceptions are often decoupled from reality and highlights the risk of feeling like you're not doing 'enough' exercise.
Dr. Crum shares her personal experience as a Division I athlete, constantly feeling she wasn't exercising enough despite intense training. She emphasizes that the key takeaway from her research is the importance of cultivating a 'sense of enoughness' about one's physical activity, rather than always striving for more and feeling inadequate.
Dr. Crum explains how her research led her to adopt an 'indulgence mindset' for healthy eating. She shares that constantly trying to restrain eating (low-calorie, low-carb) created a mindset of restraint that counteracted benefits, making her brain crave more. The trick, she advises, is to eat healthy foods but cultivate a mindset of satisfaction and enjoyment.
Dr. Crum explains her conceptualization of mindsets as a 'portal' between conscious and subconscious processes. She details how mindsets act as default settings, programmed by upbringing and media, influencing physiological responses without conscious effort. This clip highlights the power of consciously reprogramming mindsets to positively impact health and performance, bridging the gap between intention and automatic bodily reactions.
Dr. Crum discusses research on how social media influencers and movies shape public mindsets about nutrition. The findings reveal that most portrayals of food, particularly by influencers, promote unhealthy eating habits by associating them with excitement and desirability. Conversely, healthy foods are often framed with language of deprivation, highlighting a significant challenge in public health messaging and the subtle ways our food perceptions are warped.
Dr. Alia Crum explains how cultural and social forces, including media portrayals and advertising, contribute to the mindset that healthy foods are less desirable. She suggests that being more mindful of how healthy foods are depicted, especially in media like movies, can help shift this perception.
Dr. Crum offers parenting advice on fostering healthy food mindsets in children. Instead of forcing kids to eat certain foods to earn dessert, parents should focus on cultivating adaptive mindsets, making healthy foods seem indulgent and delicious, rather than a chore.
Andrew Huberman raises a compelling question about the heated online debates surrounding different diets, probing whether the strong convictions and perceived health benefits within various dietary communities might be significantly influenced by mindset effects, beyond just the objective nutritional content.
Dr. Alia Crum explains the traditional, oversimplified understanding of the placebo effect versus a more nuanced view. She clarifies that the total effect of a drug is a combination of its chemical properties and the placebo effect, which involves beliefs, social context, and the body's natural healing ability.
Dr. Crum explains that the effectiveness of diets and other behaviors is a combined product of the action itself and one's mindset about it. She emphasizes that social context shapes mindsets, which then interact with physiology to produce outcomes. She warns against dualistic thinking (all mind vs. all body) and highlights how negative mindsets (e.g., stress from not living up to diet expectations) can have adverse effects.
Dr. Crum explains the 'nocebo effect,' the 'placebo's ugly stepsister,' where negative beliefs lead to negative consequences. She provides examples like psychogenic fever (thinking you're sick can raise body temperature) and drug side effects (being told about side effects makes you more likely to experience them). She notes that mechanisms include both physiological changes and shifts in attention.
Dr. Crum introduces the concept of 'meta-mindset' and outlines three crucial steps to consciously and deliberately change your mindsets: first, be aware that you have them; second, evaluate if your mindset is helpful or harmful (not right or wrong); and third, actively seek out ways to adopt more useful mindsets.
Dr. Crum passionately discusses the vast, untapped potential of the human brain, arguing that despite advancements in AI and technology, we've barely begun to leverage our own minds. She highlights the placebo effect as an example of this underutilized power, emphasizing the burning question of what more we can do with the power of our minds.
Dr. Crum challenges the oversimplified public health message that stress is always detrimental. She reveals that scientific literature shows stress can enhance focus, attention, and information processing, lead to 'physiological toughening,' and even foster 'post-traumatic growth' – an enhanced sense of connection and joy. She argues that the true nature of stress is a paradox, and our mindset about it is key to shaping our response.
Dr. Crum describes a study conducted with UBS employees during the 2008 financial crisis. By showing short films that framed stress as either debilitating or enhancing, they observed significant changes in physiological symptoms (fewer backaches, insomnia) and work performance in those who adopted an enhancing mindset, without negatively impacting those who saw debilitating videos. This is a compelling example of mindset impact.
Dr. Crum shares findings from a study on Navy SEAL recruits, revealing that unlike the general population, these recruits inherently held an 'enhancing' stress mindset. This mindset predicted higher success rates in rigorous training, faster obstacle course times, and more positive peer ratings, demonstrating the profound impact of mindset on extreme performance and resilience.
Dr. Alia Crum explains her renowned milkshake study, revealing how participants' beliefs about a milkshake's calorie and fat content (high-indulgence vs. low-sensible) significantly impacted their ghrelin (hunger hormone) response, despite consuming the exact same shake. This demonstrates the profound link between mindset and physiological response.
Dr. Crum and Andrew Huberman summarize the core insight from their discussion: the inherent potency of healthy behaviors like eating and exercise can be significantly enhanced by one's mindset. They advocate for cultivating mindsets that serve us, emphasizing that both the behavior itself and our perception of it are crucial for optimal outcomes.
Dr. Alia Crum shares a key, counterintuitive insight from her milkshake study: for satiety and potentially better metabolism, it's more beneficial to approach eating with a mindset of indulgence and sufficiency rather than deprivation, as this can lead to a more adaptive ghrelin response.
Dr. Crum recounts the famous 'Hotel Housekeepers Study' she conducted, demonstrating how mindset dramatically impacts the physical benefits of exercise. Hotel housekeepers, who were physically active but didn't perceive their work as 'exercise,' experienced significant health improvements (weight loss, lower blood pressure) merely by being informed that their daily activity met exercise guidelines, without changing their behavior.
Dr. Crum shares a groundbreaking study where reframing the mindset of children undergoing treatment for food allergies led to remarkable improvements. By teaching kids that negative symptoms were positive signals of their bodies getting stronger, they experienced less anxiety, fewer symptoms, and better immune outcomes.
Dr. Alia Crum redefines stress as a neutral response linked to things we care about, not inherently negative. She introduces a powerful three-step framework for leveraging stress: acknowledge it, welcome it (as a sign of caring), and utilize the stress response to achieve goals rather than trying to eliminate it. This clip offers a transformative perspective on how to engage with inevitable stressors for personal growth and effectiveness.