Self Help Books - Do They Really Help?
I once saw a study somewhere that suggested self help books
don't really help people. It looked at financial self help books
specifically. Checking back at whatever time periods after they
read the books, the readers were generally making more money,
but so was everyone else that didn't read the books - at least
on average. Researchers seemed to conclude that the books were
therefore ineffective.
Talk about jumping to conclusions too quickly! The researchers
assumed that those who didn't read the books did nothing at all.
Unlikely, to say the least. We might wonder if most people really
want to work on general self development, but we also can see
that almost everyone regularly tries to improve their financial
state.
People in the control group were probably doing things other
than reading self help books, and those efforts may have gotten
them further ahead financially. Consider this for a moment. It
certainly doesn't show that the books didn't help, anymore than
you can "prove" that a car can't get you across town
because walking and biking and taking a bus can also get you
there. They are just different ways to the same goal!
The books may have helped (on average), just like the other
things people did, and perhaps people choose the things that
work best for them. Starting with this hypothesis, a better test
might be to have one group choose their self help methods while
another is forced to use methods chosen randomly. Then if the
first group shows more improvement, it suggests that many methods
work, and that each person intuitively knows which will be more
helpful for them.
Of course, it could show the opposite. After all, it is difficult
to design research like this. It's tough to have a proper "control,"
and to start with the best hypothesis even. From this we might
learn to be skeptical of research where things are hard to define
and measure.
Self Help Books Obviously Help
Some of us don't need research to prove that a good book can
help us. Many people recall a book that changed the course of
their lives, or that obviously helped in their relationships,
or even increased their income. Of course self help books can
help us.
What about the question of why they don't always help us?
Maybe you have a friend who has told you all about a great new
self help book or theory, yet doesn't seem to be much affected
by it for very long. Or maybe you've read some books yourself
that got you excited, but didn't "stick" in your mind
or change your subsequent behavior.
What is the reason for this apparent ineffectiveness? A possibility
is that the effects of such books can be powerful, yet too subtle
to notice immediately. More likely, it may be that you need to
read each book more than once, and that self help books in general
help most if they are read regularly.
I remember some research on eating I read about. People ate
a meal. Researchers then concluded that eating didn't increase
the odds of survival, since everyone died of starvation just
three months afterwards. I made that up, by the way, but do you
see the point? You have to eat regularly to get the maximum survival
benefit, so perhaps you need to get those self help books out
again and feed your mind from time to time to get the most out
of them as well.
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