Title: The Seductive Allure of Neuro Self-Help
Author: Tommy Blanchard
URL: https://cognitivewonderland.substack.com/p/the-seductive-allure-of-neuro-self
Date: 2024-10-03
I tend to stay away from self-help or “productivity” content.
I get the impulse for the stuff. We’re all looking for the best way to do things. It’s easy to look around and get the impression that others have things figured out. It’s tempting to think there’s some piece missing, some secret method, that if I discovered it, I would be less of a mess.
The trouble is, this temptation leads us to look for easy, definite answers. The self-help world obliges by finding some small slice of research and exaggerating its importance, treating it with more confidence than it deserves, and extending it far beyond the scope of what researchers tested.
Particularly egregious on this front is the use of neuroscience. Gurus will extrapolate a neuroscience finding far beyond what it can tell us to justify huge swathes of behavior. It’s weird because neuroscience is particularly ill-suited to supporting self-help advice.