behavioralscientist.org Open in urlscan Pro
65.60.53.34  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

GET https://behavioralscientist.org/

<form role="search" method="get" class="search-form" action="https://behavioralscientist.org/">
  <input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="Search …" value="" name="s" title="Search for:">
  <button type="submit" class="search-submit">
    <span class="hide-mobile">Submit</span>
    <i class="fa fa-search hide-desktop"></i>
  </button>
</form>

POST

<form id="mc4wp-form-1" class="mc4wp-form mc4wp-form-19993" method="post" data-id="19993" data-name="">
  <div class="mc4wp-form-fields">
    <p>
      <input type="email" name="EMAIL" placeholder="Your email address" required="">
    </p>
    <p>
      <input type="submit" value="Subscribe">
    </p>
  </div><label style="display: none !important;">Leave this field empty if you're human: <input type="text" name="_mc4wp_honeypot" value="" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off"></label><input type="hidden" name="_mc4wp_timestamp"
    value="1648740282"><input type="hidden" name="_mc4wp_form_id" value="19993"><input type="hidden" name="_mc4wp_form_element_id" value="mc4wp-form-1">
  <div class="mc4wp-response"></div>
</form>

Text Content

 * Print Edition + Event

Submit
 * Topics
    * Business
    * Culture
    * Education
    * Environment
    * Government
    * Health
    * History
    * Law
    * Science
    * Society
    * Technology

 * Fields
    * Behavioral Design
    * Behavioral Economics
    * Education
    * Marketing
    * Network Science
    * Neuroscience
    * Organizational Behavior
    * Political Science
    * Psychology
    * Public Policy
    * Sociology

 * Formats
    * Ask a Behavioral Scientist
    * Cartoons
    * Commentary
    * Conversations
    * Lists
    * Reports
    * Special Issues
    * What We’re Reading

 * Contributors
 * Newsletter


Health


GET COMFORTABLE WITH FEELING UNCOMFORTABLE

By Ayelet Fishbach
February 7, 2022
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

Image: Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

The famous Chicago improvisational club The Second City is known for launching
the careers of Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Carell. It also offers
classes for the rest of us. In my first class there, I participated in a “Give
Focus” group exercise. One person had to move around the room in some
interesting ways—maybe dancing, hopping, or acting—while the rest of the group
was frozen in place. At any point, the person could “pass the focus” to someone
else, who would then entertain the frozen crowd before passing the focus again,
until everyone got their turn.



This exercise is designed to build confidence and performance skills. Yet, I
mainly felt embarrassed and uncomfortable. As is often the case when that
happens, I wanted that discomfort to end. What I didn’t realize was that feeling
uncomfortable was a sign that the exercise was working, and that if I actively
sought that uncomfortable feeling—rather than trying to avoid it—I would’ve
learned more.

Kaitlin Woolley and I recently investigated the effect of seeking and embracing
discomfort in improvisation, as well as in other areas of personal growth. Those
we invited to seek discomfort achieved more: they took more risks in
improvisation classes, engaged more in an expressive writing exercise, and when
facing new and uncomfortable information, they opened themselves to it.

> What I didn’t realize was that feeling uncomfortable was a sign that the
> exercise was working, and that if I actively sought that uncomfortable
> feeling—rather than trying to avoid it—I would’ve learned more.

Discomfort often serves as a signal to stop whatever you’re doing. When you
experience physical pain, you stop exercising. When you feel emotional pain, you
withdraw from the experience. Because we have this intuitive response,
discomfort is often a bad sign for self-growth.

However, discomfort is expected when taking on new challenges. Our research
suggests that seeing discomfort as a sign of progress and actually seeking it
out can boost your motivation in these situations. While a sharp physical pain
is often a good reason to quit what you’re doing, a moderate muscle ache is a
signal you’re getting in shape. Likewise, moderate emotional discomfort is a
signal that you’re developing as a person, and it often happens before you can
detect the benefits of self-growth.

We first tested this idea with our partners at The Second City training center.
We asked hundreds of improv students to lean into discomfort when they
participated in the “Give Focus” exercise. They were specifically invited to
push past their comfort zone and put themselves in situations that make them
feel awkward and uncomfortable. As a comparison, other improv students were
invited to develop new skills and feel themselves improving. Yet a third group
of students was told to merely see if the exercise was working.

> Moderate emotional discomfort is a signal that you’re developing as a person,
> and it often happens before you can detect the benefits of self-growth.

When we analyzed the video recordings of students in each of these three groups,
we found that those asked to seek discomfort inhabited the focus role longer and
took more risks (as judged by raters who didn’t know which group people were
in)—for example, by jumping around rather than walking normally—than those in
the other two groups. Leaning into the awkwardness allowed them to engage and
develop their skills.

Moving beyond improvisation, we next tested whether seeking discomfort would
also help people to obtain the full benefits from expressive writing. The
exercise of writing about important emotional issues in your life has long been
associated with improved mental and even physical health. Yet doing it is
uncomfortable for most. In our study, we asked some people to feel awkward and
uncomfortable as they write, telling them that feeling uncomfortable was a sign
that the writing task is working. Other people were only asked to write. We
found that when people sought to feel uncomfortable, they reported growing
emotionally, developing skills, and ultimately, they were more interested in
repeating the writing task in the future.

Seeking discomfort also helped people open themselves to new information.
Whether it was information about gun violence, the health crisis, or the
viewpoints of those across the political divide, people who embraced discomfort
were willing to engage with unwelcome information more. In our study, we invited
self-identified Democrats to read articles from Fox News and self-identified
Republicans to read articles from the New York Times. Both Democrats and
Republicans whom we asked to adopt the goal of feeling uncomfortable were more
motivated to read and were more receptive of the information they disagreed with
than those who were merely invited to learn the information in the articles.

> You might only learn to love your class, workout, or new job after trying it a
> few times. When people can positively spin otherwise negative cues—reappraise
> their discomfort as a sign of achievement—those cues become more motivating.

When seeking to feel discomfort, the people in our experiments reappraised those
feelings as a positive cue—that is, as a sign of progress. As a result, they
were more motivated to engage with the unwelcome information.

To motivate self-growth, whether in school, at the gym, or at your job, it’s
best when you experience immediate gratification. If you loved an improv class,
likely you’ll come back again. But the path to self-growth often involves
short-term discomfort in the service of long-term gains. You might only learn to
love your class, workout, or new job after trying it a few times. When people
can positively spin otherwise negative cues—reappraise their discomfort as a
sign of achievement—those cues become more motivating.

Taken cautiously, adopting a “no pain, no gain” mentality when you know
something will make you feel awkward, sad, scared, or uncomfortable in the
short-run can boost your motivation to stick with it until it feels right.

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

LOOK INSIDE PRINT EDITION #2 – BRAIN MEETS WORLD

POPULAR ON BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST

 1. GET COMFORTABLE WITH FEELING UNCOMFORTABLE
    
    By Ayelet Fishbach

 2. NAVIGATING NO-WIN DECISION-MAKING WITH BARUCH FISCHHOFF
    
    By Anupriya Kukreja

 3. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE SOLACE OF ‘AT LEAST’ AND THE STING OF ‘IF ONLY’?
    
    By Daniel H. Pink

 4. ANNOUNCING: PRINT EDITION #2 — BRAIN MEETS WORLD
    
    By Editorial Board

View Most Popular

AYELET FISHBACH

Ayelet Fishbach is a professor of behavioral science and marketing at the
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and the author of Get it Done:
Surprising Lessons From The Science of Motivation.



FURTHER READING & RESOURCES

 * Fishbach, A. (2022). Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of
   Motivation. New York, NY: Little, Brown Spark.  (Link)
 * Woolley, Kaitlin and Ayelet Fishbach (in press), “Motivating Personal Growth
   by Seeking Discomfort,” Psychological Science. (Link)
 * James W. Pennebaker. (1997). Writing About Emotional Experiences as a
   Therapeutic Process, Psychological Science 8(3), 162-166. (Link)

 * behavior change
 * habits
 * motivation

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

 * Health
   
   WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE SOLACE OF ‘AT LEAST’ AND THE STING OF ‘IF ONLY’?
   
   By Daniel H. Pink
 * Health
   
   THE CHILDREN’S COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT REQUIRES A DIFFERENT PLAYBOOK
   
   By Ricardo LaGrange and Lee-Sien Kao
 * Health
   
   “TURN DOWN FOR WHAT”—THE INVISIBLE TOLL OF MUSIC THAT’S TOO LOUD
   
   By Pranav Trewn



Original, thought-provoking reports from the front lines of behavioral science.



Leave this field empty if you're human:

 * New! Behavioral Scientist in Print
 * Contributors
 * Topics
 * Fields
 * What We’re Reading

 * About
 * Contact Us
 * Submission Guidelines
 * Support Behavioral Scientist

 * 
 * 
 * 

© Behavioral Scientist 2022
Built by the Keller Creative Co.