By Catherine A. Sanderson, Amherst College
Our perceptions influence how we see and experience the world, and how we respond in virtually all situations, for better or for worse. How we select and perceive information is influenced by the types of mental frames or lens we hold about ourselves and the world. These mindsets frame the perceptions we receive, and they also, in turn, influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Power of Perception
The power of mindset explains why people perceive physically difficult experiences as less painful when they can see some upside and why so many people willingly get a piercing, give birth, or even climb Mount Everest.
It explains why police officers are more likely to mistake a wallet for a gun if held by a Black man than a white man, why people feel more attraction to a stranger after walking across a shaky bridge, and why comparison is often the thief of joy.
This power of mindset also, at least in some cases, can have lasting effects. Take, for example, the negative stereotypes about aging, which are so prevalent in the United States.
Perceptions Regarding Aging
Researchers in one study used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which measured participants’ attitudes about aging by asking them to rate their agreement with various stereotypes, such as, “Old people are absent-minded” and “Old people cannot concentrate well”.
This study, the longest-running study of healthy aging in the world, then measured the same people, with a wide variety of starting ages, for nearly 40 years, which allows them to examine how change occurs over time. By and large, this is a pretty select sample; the participants are highly educated (at least 77% had completed college), and at the time of entry in the study, in excellent health.
Then, 38 years after the initial surveys, the researchers assessed these same people’s memory using standard tests; showing someone a geometric figure for 10 seconds and then asking them to draw that shape from memory. The researchers then compared scores on this memory test to those taken when the participants first enrolled in the study decades earlier.
Lasting Effects
Their findings were pretty remarkable. People with the most negative stereotypes about aging also showed the most decline in cognitive performance. In fact, older adults, those ages 60 and above, who initially held the most negative attitudes about aging showed a 30% greater decline in memory performance over time compared to those with more positive expectations.
Now, the researchers statistically controlled for many other factors that might have explained the memory decline over time, including age, race, sex, marital status, level of education, number of chronic conditions, and depression.
These findings therefore suggest that our perceptions don’t just affect our immediate thoughts and feelings, but that holding negative perceptions can also have real and lasting effects over decades.
This article comes directly from content in the video series Introduction to Psychology. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Cross-cultural Research
Cross-cultural research highlights the power of perceptions at a broader level, showing that older adults in cultures with a more positive view of how to age do not show the same type of age-related declines in memory performance.
Chinese culture, for example, has physical and cultural traditions that support people as they age, such as tai chi and qigong, show respect for older people, and expect that with healthy aging comes wisdom, not senility.
Researchers therefore predicted that old age should not have the same detrimental impact on memory performance in China. To test this theory, a study published in 1994 compared memory performance on two distinct types of tests in both younger and older adults, in China and the United States.
One of the tests asked people to reproduce a pattern of dots they had seen for 10 seconds; the other required people to memorize pairings between particular photos of people and some activity, such as, “She swims every day” and “He fell and broke his hip”.
As they predicted, younger adults in both countries did very well on both types of memory tests and there were no differences based on culture. But culture mattered for older adults’ performance: Older adults in the United States performed substantially worse on both types of tests compared to older adults in China.
Conclusions from the Study
So, biological factors alone—the natural brain decay that occurs with age—do not explain why Americans were more likely to show deficits in memory with age. After all, the body’s natural aging process at a biological level surely works the same across different cultures.
Instead, researchers believe that the overwhelmingly negative old-age stereotypes themselves have been a primary cause of such deficits in the United States.
How Are Perceptions and Health Connected?
People who adopt positive expectations have better health outcomes because they use adaptive coping mechanisms to manage stress—tackling problems head-on, seeking out social support, and following medical recommendations. These proactive approaches to stress minimize its effects and reduce wear-and-tear on the body. This means that their body is better able to fight off minor infections, recover from surgery, and so on.
Another explanation is that the mere act of believing itself changes your body’s physiological response. Remember, even placebos—which create a belief about treatment, without other intervention—can lead to changes in the body and brain, including the release of endorphins that inhibit pain.
Common Questions about How Our Mindset Influences Our Health and Body
Our perceptions influence how we see and experience the world, and how we respond in virtually all situations, for better or for worse. This power of mindset explains why people perceive physically difficult experiences as less painful when they can see some upside and why so many people willingly get a piercing, give birth, or even climb Mount Everest.
People who adopt positive expectations have better health outcomes because they use adaptive coping mechanisms to manage stress—tackling problems head-on, seeking out social support, and following medical recommendations. These proactive approaches to stress minimize its effects and reduce wear-and-tear on the body.
Researchers in one study used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which measured participants’ attitudes about aging by asking them to rate their agreement with various stereotypes, such as, “Old people are absent-minded” and “Old people cannot concentrate well”.
