📚 New book giveaway, My first Dostoevsky novel, and more.

👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 10 Insightful book summary mindmaps.

• 10 Quotes that hit me hard from my first Dostoevsky novel.

• My most viral video of 2024 (this video got 3+ million views).

🥳 New Book Giveaway:

I teamed up with Morning Brew to give away 5 awesome books to 1 lucky reader!

Morning Brew is my favorite business newsletter–every morning they recap the most important stories in the world in business. It’s short, witty, and insightful.

To enter the book giveaway, all you have to do is sign up for Morning Brew here (it’s free)!

Note: This is a global giveaway so anyone can enter. Only people who sign up for Morning Brew using my link will be entered in the giveaway. If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll have to enter a new email.

Contest ends Jan. 20th, 2025 at 11:59PM EST. Winner will be announced in next week’s newsletter.

📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “The Expectation Effect” by David Robson.

This is a fascinating psychology book that explains how what we think will happen can dramatically change what does happen. If you enjoyed “Mindset” by Carol Dweck or “The Placebo Effect” by Joe Dispenza, you’ll like this book.

Here are 3 lessons from it:

📖

1) Your Beliefs Can Change Your Reality

During World War II, morphine was in high demand but in short supply.

So several soldiers had to undergo surgery without painkillers.

However, to create the illusion of treatment, American anesthesiologist Henry Beecher would inject the patient with a saline solution while assuring the soldier that he was receiving the real painkiller.

Surprisingly, the pseudo-treatment worked quite well.

Beecher estimated that the placebo was about 90% as effective as the actual drug.

It even seemed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular shock that can result from surgery without sedation and analgesia, which can be fatal.

Decades later, researchers at Stanford ran a study on a different type of drug–caffeine.

Researchers told students that they were drinking an energy drink with 200 mg of caffeine.

After ingesting the drink, researchers noticed the participants had a large spike in blood pressure.

However, in reality, the participants were just given a plain bottle of water with zero caffeine.

This is known as the expectation effect–what you believe can dramatically change your well-being.

Your brain doesn’t just perceive reality—it actively constructs it, and your feelings and expectations can bias your brain’s predictions.

📖

2) Maybe It’s Worth Paying More For Brand Names

Have you ever heard of the saying, “You’re paying for the brand”?

In other words, you’re paying more for a certain name rather than a better product.

Well, studies might say otherwise…

In one study from 2010, researchers asked participants to wear a pair of sunglasses and read 84 words under the glare of a bright light.

Everyone had a pair of the same-quality sunglasses, but those who were told they were wearing Ray-Bans (a popular high-quality sunglasses brand) made about half as many mistakes as those who were told their sunglasses came from a midmarket brand.

But it gets better…

The participants who believed they were wearing Ray-Bans also completed the task more quickly–about 60% faster.

Researchers found similar results in a hearing study.

People who believed they were wearing a more prestigious brand (3M) were better able to hear a list of words above construction noise, compared with participants who thought they’d been given a lower-quality product, even though everyone had the same gear.

In both experiments, the participant’s trust in the (allegedly) high-quality products led them to believe that they would benefit from weighted perception and that was what they experienced, even though there was no actual difference in the product.

It was the expectation that they could see or hear better that led their brains to work harder and make their beliefs a reality.

📖

3) Be Careful of Nocebo Effects

Our beliefs can create a positive outcomes (placebo effect), but they can also create a negative outcomes (nocebo effect).

Take the story of Mr. A for example:

Mr. A was a man from Minnesota who went through a bad breakup in 2007.

He signed up for a clinical trial of a new antidepressant in the hopes that the new treatment could relieve his feelings of hopelessness.

In the first few weeks, he found that the pills had worked and his mood improved.

But during the second month of the trial, he decided to end his life by eating all 29 of his remaining capsules.

Quickly regretting his decision, he asked his neighbor to drive him to the emergency department of his local hospital.

“Help me, I took all my pills,” he told a nurse before promptly collapsing.

When the doctors examined Mr. A, he was pale and drowsy with shockingly low blood pressure.

However, there appeared to be no trace of relevant toxins within his system, so the medical team called the doctor from the clinical trial.

The doctor confirmed that Mr. A had never taken the active drug, but rather was given a dummy, or sugar pill, that served as the placebo for the study.

Fortunately, on learning this news, Mr. A made a quick recovery.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) We’re shaped by what we believe about ourselves and the world around us:

• Our brains, bodies, and environments conspire to create what researchers call expectation effects so that what we expect to be or do becomes our reality.

2) Buying a designer brand won’t improve your results (unless you believe otherwise):

• Buying a pair of Jordan basketball shoes, won’t make you play like Mike (unless you believe it will).

3) Placebo effects are real but so are nocebo effects:

• Expecting to feel pain or get sick can actually cause illness to happen (if you guys want I can do a whole newsletter on counteracting nocebo effects).

💎 Weekly Gem:

David Protein Bars

I decided to try these protein bars after Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia recommended them.

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Each bar has 0 grams of sugar, 28 grams of protein, and only 150 calories.

They have 6 flavors–my favorite is the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk. I usually eat one after dinner as my “sweet treat.”

It’s a way to get more protein into my diet or is a great snack if you’re on the go.

Try David today and get a free sample pack with your first subscription order.

Thank you for your support, read on everyone!

-Alex W.