Dr. Alia Crum: Science of Mindsets for Health & Performance

Dr. Alia Crumb and Mindsets

• Mindsets: core beliefs or assumptions about a domain or category 
  • Orient us to expectations, explanations, and goals
• Mindsets exist for various domains: 
  • Stress: enhancing (good) vs. debilitating (bad)
  • Intelligence: Carol Dweck’s work on growth vs. fixed mindset
  • Food, medicine, etc.

Dr. Alia Crumb defines mindsets as core beliefs or assumptions about a domain or category of things that orient us to a particular set of expectations, explanations, and goals. These mindsets can exist for various domains, such as stress, intelligence, food, and medicine. For example, one’s mindset about stress could be that it is enhancing and good for them, or debilitating and bad for them. Similarly, Carol Dweck’s work on intelligence explores the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset.
Mindsets and Their Effects

• Mindsets simplify life by constraining the number of things we have to consider
• Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset 
  • Beliefs about intelligence and abilities being fixed or malleable
  • These beliefs affect motivation and learning
• Expanding the range of mindsets studied 
  • Mindsets about stress, food, exercise, illness, and symptoms/​​side effects
  • These mindsets shape our attention, motivation, and physiological responses

Milkshake Study

• Aim: To test if beliefs about food change our body’s physiological response to it
• Method: Participants consumed two “different” milkshakes (actually the same) at different time points 
  • One was labeled as high fat, high calorie, indulgent
  • The other was labeled as low fat, low calorie, sensible
• Results: Ghrelin levels (hunger hormone) dropped three times stronger when participants thought they were consuming the indulgent milkshake 
  • Bodies responded as if they had consumed more food
  • Counterintuitive finding: thinking you’re eating indulgently may be more beneficial for weight maintenance/​​loss

Connection Between Conscious Thought and Subconscious Processes

• Ghrelin pathway is not consciously controlled, but is affected by thoughts and beliefs
• Crossover between conscious thought and subconscious/​​autonomic pathways
• Raises questions about the effects of different diets and nutrients on our physiology and mindset
  Mindset and Nutrition
• People find a nutritional program that works for them 
  • Energy-​​wise, mentally, blood profiles
  • Each camp touts health benefits and how great they feel
• Mindset effects are involved 
  • Health may be shifting in a positive direction due to community, ideas, and reinforcement
  • Belief that this is the right way of doing something

Placebo Effect vs. Belief Effects

• Placebo effect: outdated understanding based on randomized control trials 
  • Total impact of a drug is a combined product of the drug’s chemical attributes and the placebo effect
• Belief effects: beliefs trigger physiological processes and are shaped by social context 
  • Related to placebo effects, but not limited to taking a placebo

Hotel Workers Study

• Hotel housekeepers getting a lot of exercise but not aware of it 
  • Surveyed them, a third said they got zero exercise
• Randomized into two groups 
  • One group was told their work was good exercise
  • Measured physiological metrics before and after
• Results: the group that was told their work was good exercise had health benefits 
  • Lost weight, decreased systolic blood pressure, felt better about themselves and their work
  • No changes in behavior or diet detected

Implications for Exercise

• Current approach: tell people the amount of exercise needed for health benefits 
  • Most people aren’t meeting those requirements
  • Guidelines not motivational and don’t change behavior
• Mindset can enhance the effect of exercise on health metrics 
  • Need to be more thoughtful in motivating people to exercise and teaching about benefits
    The Role of Mindset in Exercise and Sleep
• Mindset can impact the benefits of exercise and sleep 
• Feeling like you’re getting enough exercise can lead to better health outcomes
• Focusing on the potency of exercise and healthy food can enhance their benefits

Study on Sleep Mindset

• One study by Dragon Awe and colleagues used a sham EEG test to give participants fake feedback about their sleep quality
• Participants who were told they had lower quality sleep showed deficits in cognitive tasks, regardless of their actual sleep quality
• Sleep trackers can influence mindset and expectations about daily performance

Stress and Mindset

• Public health message often emphasizes that stress is bad for health, productivity, relationships, fertility, and cognition
• However, mindset can play a role in how stress affects us
• By conceptualizing stress in a more positive way, we can potentially reduce its negative impact on our mental and physical performance
  The Paradox of Stress
• Stress can be both debilitating and enhancing 
• The body’s response to stress is designed to help manage challenging situations 
  • Stress can narrow focus, increase attention, and speed up information processing
  • Physiological toughening: catabolic hormones in the stress response activate anabolic hormones, helping growth and learning
• Post-​​traumatic growth: experiencing traumatic stressors can lead to enhanced connection to values, others, and a sense of joy and passion for living

Mindsets About Stress

• People’s mindsets about stress can shape their response to stress 
  • Viewing stressors as challenges rather than threats leads to more adaptive responses
• Studies have shown that having a more enhancing stress mindset is linked to better health outcomes, well-​​being, and higher performance

Changing Mindsets About Stress

• Multimedia films showcasing research, anecdotes, and facts about stress can change people’s mindsets about stress 
  • Enhancing mindset: stress can help you grow, bring out your best, and lead to heightened performance
  • Debilitating mindset: stress will diminish, crush, and reduce you
• Study with UBS employees during the 2008 financial crisis showed that watching enhancing films led to changes in mindsets, reduced physiological symptoms, and better work performance

Stress Mindset in Navy Seals

• Navy Seal recruits on average had a stress-​​enhancing mindset
• Having a stress-​​enhancing mindset was linked to a higher likelihood of completing training, faster obstacle course times, and more positive peer ratings
• Stress-​​enhancing mindset does not mean liking stress or viewing stressors as good things, but rather recognizing that the experience of stress can lead to enhancing outcomes in cognition, health, performance, and well-being

How Stress-​​Enhancing Mindset Works

• Changes motivation: focus on utilizing stress to realize enhancing outcomes, learn from the experience, and grow stronger
• More positive affect: people with a stress-​​enhancing mindset have more positive emotions, not necessarily less negative emotions
• Potential changes in physiology: more moderate cortisol response and higher levels of DHEA in response to stress (more research needed)
  DHEA and Anabolic Hormones
• DHEA is an anabolic hormone in both men and women 
• A study showed that spiking adrenaline response (e.g., through skydiving) increased testosterone levels 
  • Contradicts the idea that stress always lowers testosterone levels
• Adrenaline is derived from dopamine, and these hormones work together in the pituitary and hypothalamus

Mindsets and Stress

• Mindsets can be thought of as a portal between conscious and subconscious processes 
  • They operate as a default setting of the mind
  • Can be influenced by upbringing, public health messages, and media
• Mindsets can impact physiological processes, such as anabolic hormones

Leveraging Stress

• Instead of focusing on managing or coping with stress, the challenge is to leverage it and utilize it
• Three-​​step approach to adopting a stress-​​enhancing mindset: 
  1. Acknowledge that you’re stressed
  2. Welcome it, as it is connected to something you care about
  3. Utilize the stress response to achieve the thing you care about, rather than trying to get rid of the stress

Influencers and Health Information

• Research is being conducted to understand where mindsets come from and the impact of influencers on health information
• It is important to evaluate the quality of information provided by influencers and their potential impact on public health and individual mindsets
  Influences on Mindsets about Healthy Foods
• Upbringing: how our parents talked about stress, food, etc. 
• Culture and media: movies, podcasts, social media
• Influential others: doctors, close friends, peers
• Conscious choice: humans have the ability to be mindful and change mindsets

Unhealthy Foods in Media and Influencers

• 70%-90% of top-​​grossing movies and influential Instagram accounts fail UK legal standards for advertising
• Unhealthy foods are portrayed as exciting, fun, sexy, dangerous, indulgent
• Healthy foods are rarely portrayed, and when they are, they’re often shown as boring, bland, or depriving

Changing Mindsets about Healthy Foods

• It’s possible to change mindsets about healthy foods and make them more appealing
• Movie producers and influencers can showcase healthy foods in a more positive light
• Public reacts more positively to posts about unhealthy foods, indicating a need for a cultural shift

Placebo Effects in Medicine and Behavioral Health

• Research is being conducted on how to improve the experience and outcomes of treatments by instilling different mindsets
• Example: reframijavascript:void(0)ng mindsets about symptoms and side effects in children undergoing treatment for food allergies
• Results showed reduced anxiety, fewer symptoms, and better outcomes with a more positive mindset

Amplifying Effects of Medications with Positive Mindsets

• It’s possible that positive mindsets could amplify the effects of medications at lower or appropriate doses
• This idea challenges the traditional view of placebo effects being strictly expectancy-​​based
  Mindsets and Their Effects
• Mindsets can influence our physiology and behavior 
• Understanding the mechanisms behind mindsets can help us change them for the better
• First step to changing mindsets is being aware that we have them and that they are not objective reflections of reality
• Second step is to evaluate the effects of our mindsets on our lives and determine if they are helpful or harmful

Teaching and Learning Mindsets

• Meta mindset: consciously and deliberately changing our mindsets
• Focus on helping children adopt adaptive mindsets rather than forcing specific behaviors
• Treat yourself like a scientist, observing and evaluating your own mindsets and their effects on your life

Applying Mindsets in Different Domains

• Mindsets can be applied to various aspects of life, such as athletics, academics, and parenting
• Understanding the power of our minds can help us navigate challenges and improve our lives
• Leveraging the power of our minds, such as the placebo effect, can have significant impacts on our well-being

Finding More Information on Mindsets

• Dr. Alia Crum’s research and materials can be found on her lab’s website: MBL​.stanford​.edu
• Stanford Spark (social Psychological Answers to Real World Questions) offers toolkits for various mindset approaches
• Dr. Crum can be found on Twitter: @Aliacra