Research beneath the 12 Journeys

The Science Behind the Tribe

47 findings behind the practices of the journeys — each one said at the strength the research found it, each with its full sources.

Journey 1Non-Consciousness

Changing Intentions Changes Behavior, but Much Less. Across 47 experiments, a medium-to-large change in what people intended led to only a small-to-medium change in what they later did.Changing Intentions Changes Behavior, but Much Less →You Tend to Mirror Others Without Noticing. In 1999 lab experiments, people unconsciously copied strangers’ mannerisms, and in one, people whose partner quietly mirrored them liked that partner more.You Tend to Mirror Others Without Noticing →If-Then Plans Help People Reach Their Goals. In a 2006 review of 94 tests, people who added an if-then plan, ‘when X happens, I will do Y’, did better at reaching their goals: a medium-to-large average effect.If-Then Plans Help People Reach Their Goals →Self-Talk in Your Own Name Can Help Under Social Stress. In two lab studies, students who reflected before a speech or first meeting using their name and ‘you’, not ‘I’, felt less distress and were rated as performing better.Self-Talk in Your Own Name Can Help Under Social Stress →
The Non-Consciousness Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 2Awareness

Looking Inward: How You Do It Matters. Self-focus goes with more negative feeling, but how matters: in lab studies, concrete, moment-by-moment thinking aided mood recovery more than abstract “why” thinking.Looking Inward: How You Do It Matters →Seeing a Thought as Just a Thought. In people who had been depressed, those less able to see thoughts as passing events were likelier to relapse, and a mindfulness program grew that ability.Seeing a Thought as Just a Thought →Tracking Progress Helps, More When Written or Shared. Across 138 experiments, prompting people to monitor their progress moved them closer to their goals on average, more so when it was written down or reported to others.Tracking Progress Helps, More When Written or Shared →Largest Brain-Scan Trials: Eight Weeks, No Structural Change. Small early studies reported gray-matter changes after eight weeks of mindfulness; the largest brain-scan trials, with 218 people, found no structural change.Largest Brain-Scan Trials: Eight Weeks, No Structural Change →
The Awareness Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 3Grief

Rituals and Grief: What Three Experiments Found. In three experiments, people who recalled a ritual after a death or breakup, or did one after losing a lab lottery, reported less grief, partly via regained control.Rituals and Grief: What Three Experiments Found →You Don’t Have to Let It All Out. A review found no evidence that sharing or expressing emotions helps people adjust to a loss in normal bereavement.You Don’t Have to Let It All Out →The Five Stages, Tested With Grieving People. In 233 bereaved people, painful feelings peaked in the predicted order on average, yet acceptance was most endorsed from month one and yearning was the strongest of them.The Five Stages, Tested With Grieving People →What Support Did, and Didn’t, Do After a Loss. In one study of older women who lost their husbands, more support went with less low mood, but it showed no sign of cushioning the loss or speeding recovery.What Support Did, and Didn’t, Do After a Loss →
The Grief Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 4Acceptance

Habitually Hiding Your Feelings Goes With Lower Well-Being. In studies of college students, people who habitually hid their emotions felt less positive and more negative emotion, had poorer relationships and lower well-being.Habitually Hiding Your Feelings Goes With Lower Well-Being →Accepting Nerves, Not Hiding Them: Heart Rate Rose Less. In one lab study, people who accepted their nerves around a speech had a smaller heart-rate rise than people told to hide them, but didn’t report feeling less anxious.Accepting Nerves, Not Hiding Them: Heart Rate Rose Less →Acceptance Isn’t Giving Up: What Pain Research Found. Researchers who took apart a measure of chronic-pain acceptance found two parts that held up: engaging in daily life regardless of the pain, and willingness to feel it.Acceptance Isn’t Giving Up: What Pain Research Found →Naming an Emotion Reduced Amygdala Responses in a Scan. In a brain-scan study, naming the emotion on a pictured face, versus other ways of viewing it, reduced amygdala responses during the task and engaged a prefrontal region.Naming an Emotion Reduced Amygdala Responses in a Scan →
The Acceptance Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 5Gratitude

Gratitude and Life Satisfaction: A Small Two-Way Link. In two studies of Chilean adults (725 and 1,841 people), gratitude and life satisfaction each predicted the other over months, though both effects were small.Gratitude and Life Satisfaction: A Small Two-Way Link →Gratitude and Generosity Tend to Travel Together. A meta-analysis of 91 studies and 18,342 people found a moderate link between gratitude and acts that benefit others, strongest when people were repaying a kindness.Gratitude and Generosity Tend to Travel Together →An If-Then Plan Helped Partners Say Thanks More Often. In one five-week study of couples, a short if-then planning exercise to express gratitude led one partner to thank more, and those couples reported more time together.An If-Then Plan Helped Partners Say Thanks More Often →Thanked by Their Manager, Fundraisers Made More Calls. In one field experiment, university fundraisers thanked by their manager made more calls; feeling socially valued, not more capable, explained the rise.Thanked by Their Manager, Fundraisers Made More Calls →
The Gratitude Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 6Empowerment

Approach, Not Avoidance: The Research on Facing Fear. Staying with a fear long enough to learn is central to psychology’s best-supported methods for strong fears; current models say new learning competes with the old fear.Approach, Not Avoidance: The Research on Facing Fear →Knowing You’re Safe Doesn’t Always Calm the Body’s Alarm. Even mild, uncontrollable stress can rapidly weaken planning and reasoning, and defensive circuits can fire before conscious appraisal has formed.Knowing You’re Safe Doesn’t Always Calm the Body’s Alarm →When a Sweeping ‘I Am’ Falls Flat. In one study, students with low self-esteem who repeated a sweeping positive self-statement felt worse than those who didn’t; a replication found no effect either way.When a Sweeping ‘I Am’ Falls Flat →Caring for Others vs. Giving Yourself Away. Psychologists separate caring for others from focusing on others to the exclusion of yourself, and mostly correlational research links only the second with distress.Caring for Others vs. Giving Yourself Away →
The Empowerment Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 7Uncertainty

Experiments With Not Knowing. In one randomized trial of adults with clinical-level chronic worry, a program built around behavioral experiments beat a wait-list, and gains held a year later.Experiments With Not Knowing →The Trait Researchers Call Intolerance of Uncertainty. People who find not-knowing hard to bear tend to worry more; researchers now measure this as a trait, and everyone sits somewhere on it.The Trait Researchers Call Intolerance of Uncertainty →Over the Long Run, Inaction Tends to Bring More Regret. In research on regret, people's actions tended to bring more regret in the short term, while the things they didn't do tended to bring more regret over the long run.Over the Long Run, Inaction Tends to Bring More Regret →Not Knowing Can Turn Feelings Up, Both Ways. In a small set of experiments, the feeling of not knowing made pleasant film clips feel more pleasant and unpleasant ones feel more unpleasant.Not Knowing Can Turn Feelings Up, Both Ways →
The Uncertainty Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 8Abundance

What 259 Samples Say About Materialism. Across 259 samples, stronger materialistic values went with modestly lower well-being, though the data are correlational and can’t show which comes first.What 259 Samples Say About Materialism →Worry and the Mind’s Working Space. Across 177 samples and 22,061 people, higher self-reported anxiety went with somewhat poorer performance on working-memory tasks, a link averaged across many studies.Worry and the Mind’s Working Space →In One Study, Picturing the Steps Beat Picturing the Prize. Students who pictured how they’d study did more of it and got better grades; in other studies, rosy fantasies of the future went with less effort and worse results.In One Study, Picturing the Steps Beat Picturing the Prize →Wish, Obstacle, Plan: What the Studies Found. Across 21 studies, pairing a wish with its obstacle and an if-then plan had a small-to-medium effect on reaching goals, possibly smaller given publication bias.Wish, Obstacle, Plan: What the Studies Found →
The Abundance Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 9Vision

Dream First, Then Picture the Obstacle. Imagining a wish first and then the obstacle in its way made people's commitment follow their own expectations: strong when they expected success, weak when they didn't.Dream First, Then Picture the Obstacle →People Who Pictured Their Future Chose More Patiently. In a lab task with money, people who brought events from their own planned future to mind chose larger, later rewards more often; those who imagined more shifted more.People Who Pictured Their Future Chose More Patiently →Goals That Are Yours Tend to Get More Effort. In semester-long studies, students' goals that fit their own interests and values got more sustained effort and progress; reaching them went with bigger well-being gains.Goals That Are Yours Tend to Get More Effort →Writing About Your Best Possible Self Lifts Optimism. In a review of 29 studies, writing about your 'best possible self' improved well-being, optimism and positive mood; one study found it raised positive expectations too.Writing About Your Best Possible Self Lifts Optimism →
The Vision Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 10Surrender

What Slow Breathing Does to Your Heart Rhythm. Across studies, slow, voluntary breathing raised a heart-rhythm marker of the body’s calming branch: during sessions, straight after, and across repeated sessions.What Slow Breathing Does to Your Heart Rhythm →Pushing a Thought Away Can Bring It Back. People told not to think of a white bear later thought of it more than those told to think of it first; across controlled studies, the rebound is small to moderate.Pushing a Thought Away Can Bring It Back →Helplessness, Revisited: What Animals Learn Is Control. A review of fifty years of animal research on helplessness concluded passivity is the default under prolonged, inescapable shock, and learning control can overcome it.Helplessness, Revisited: What Animals Learn Is Control →When a Practised Skill Slips Under Pressure. In a lab study, putting practised by people new to golf got worse under pressure, while alphabet arithmetic, a step-by-step mental task, did not.When a Practised Skill Slips Under Pressure →
The Surrender Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 11Nurture

Switching Off From Work Goes With Less Exhaustion. Across many studies, employees who mentally switch off from work in their free time report better well-being and less exhaustion.Switching Off From Work Goes With Less Exhaustion →Self-Compassion Goes With Healthier Everyday Habits. Across 15 samples (3,252 people), people higher in self-compassion tended to report healthier eating, exercise, sleep and stress-management habits, a small link.Self-Compassion Goes With Healthier Everyday Habits →In One Study, New Habits Took a Median of 66 Days. In one study, new daily habits were estimated to take a median of 66 days to feel as automatic as they would get (18 to 254 days), and one missed day did not derail it.In One Study, New Habits Took a Median of 66 Days →
The Nurture Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →

Journey 12Legacy

Freely Chosen Help Does More for Both of You. In four studies, freely chosen helping went with more well-being for helpers than pressured helping; in the two that measured it, the people helped benefited more too.Freely Chosen Help Does More for Both of You →Legacy Isn’t Reserved for the Famous. In a 1993 study, generativity (caring for what outlasts you) appeared in young, midlife and older adults, and generative concern went with greater life satisfaction.Legacy Isn’t Reserved for the Famous →Acts of Kindness Give the Giver a Modest Lift. Across 27 experiments, performing acts of kindness raised the well-being of the person doing them by a small-to-medium amount.Acts of Kindness Give the Giver a Modest Lift →A Meaningful Life and a Happy One Can Differ. In one survey, happiness and meaning overlapped, but once that overlap was set aside, meaning went with giving and happiness more with taking: a link, not a cause.A Meaningful Life and a Happy One Can Differ →
The Legacy Deep Dive: the research, seminar by seminar →