People Who Post Inspirational Quotes
We've all seen them. Beautiful images overlaid with a profound and meaningful quotation, draped across our Facebook or Instagram news feed by a well-meaning friend.
Well, according to a new study, people who post these 'inspirational' quotes also have lower levels of intelligence.
They're also more likely to hold religious beliefs and be taken in by conspiracy theories .
The study, called: " On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bulls**t " measured 845 volunteers across four different experiments.
The psychologist team behind it asked the volunteers to evaluate several 'profound' statements and say if they agreed with them or not.
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Thought you might find this article interesting Raphael.
Stand firm: Resisting the self-improvement craze
These days, positive thinking, personal growth and the relentless pursuit of happiness are pretty much moral imperatives. And there's no shortage of "experts" producing blogs, podcasts and books that promise to help you on your journey.
But a counter-culture is emerging. Svend Brinkmann, a Danish psychology professor and leader of the anti-self-help movement, says it's time to reject the self-improvement ideology, refuse the cult of positive thinking and stand firm.
"We are only allowed to be positive, we are only allowed to be happy and anything that threatens these states of mind is considered wrong." All that is painful, all that feels overwhelming and unbearable — whether domestically, socially, even politically and culturally — must therefore be repressed, he argues. In a culture of mandated positivity, if we are unhappy we only have ourselves to blame.
"People's problems are explained with reference to the fact that they weren't positive enough," Professor Brinkmann said. "It is the individual who is to blame for what happens even when the cause of the problem is social or structural or organisational."
But there's a paradox. While positive psychology has become more broadly accepted, rates of depression continue to rise.
Professor Brinkmann makes sense of this contradiction by arguing that we need to reflect on societal development and the frenetic pace of change that defines contemporary life.
According to Professor Brinkmann, this relentless pursuit is weighing us down.
This whole inward turn, Professor Brinkmann argues, is only making us more unhappy:
"So many studies have shown that meaning is found in our relationships, with others, with the world, with society, with nature — with something beyond ourselves."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-05-23/stand-firm-resisting-the-self-improvement-craze/8542118