Mindful of Mindsets: With Guests Erik Vance & Alia Crum

March 28, 2021
How can our expectations and mindset have a positive effect on our health and our lives?

After you listen

Your mindset can have a big impact on your portfolio, especially if you allow your emotions to get the better of you—like during bouts of market volatility, for instance.

  • The Financial Decoder podcast explores the ways emotional and psychological forces might be affecting your financial well-being. And it covers strategies to help you make smarter financial decisions. Check it out at schwab.com/financialdecoder or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have you ever visited your doctor to deal with a minor health issue and then left the office with nothing more than the doctor"s calming reassurance? Chances are good that you felt a bit better, physically, just by virtue of experiencing the environment of the clinic and anticipating some kind of improvement in your health.

In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we explore how your beliefs and expectations can have a very real impact on your health and well-being.

Science journalist Erik Vance vividly recounts several peculiar experiences taking part in traditional healing ceremonies in Mexico. Erik examined certain aspects of these age-old rituals through the lens of modern science to discover some measurable effects on health. He also volunteered for a rather painful experiment in a research lab involving electric shocks with some surprising results.

Erik Vance is a journalist and editor with the New York Times Well Desk. He's also the author of the book: Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain's Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal.

Next, you'll hear the results of a sneaky experiment with some unwitting volunteers involving special coffee.

Then, Katy speaks with Alia Crum about her research into mindsets and the placebo effect and how they function to activate the body's natural physiological abilities to heal itself. She explains how setting expectations can lead to improved outcomes in diet and exercise—and can have marked positive effects on stress management.

Alia Crum is an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University and the principal investigator of the Stanford Mind & Body Lab.

Finally, Katy explains how you can leverage mindsets to help you achieve your goals.

Choiceology is an original podcast from Charles Schwab. 

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