Research participants who were directed to write short essays about why they had succeeded in a first task were 2.31 times more likely than others to persist in the face of failure in a second task, say Peter V. Zunick and two colleagues from Ohio State University. This demonstrates that people with negative self-views often fail to draw general conclusions about their abilities after past successes, but that the experience of generalising about past triumphs through short essays helps them overcome this tendency.

(Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 24th, 2015

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