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Giant Brain Candy: They Had It Backwards. Fifty years after discovering ‘learned helplessness’ in animals, its discoverers concluded they had it backwards: passivity under prolonged stress is the default, and what gets learned is control. Source: Learned helplessness at fifty.
Growing evidenceThe research
  1. Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience. Psychological Review, 123(4), 349–367.

Journey 6 · Empowerment

They Had It Backwards

Fifty years after discovering ‘learned helplessness’ in animals, its discoverers concluded they had it backwards: passivity under prolonged stress is the default, and what gets learned is control.

Source: Learned helplessness at fifty · Growing evidence

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