For the John Templeton Foundation, I interviewed Ethan Kross about positive self-talk.
How did you get interested in the psychology of introspection?
I was brought up to believe that introspection was helpful for people managing many problems they encounter in life: you introspect, you find a solution, you move on. When I took my first psych class in college, I discovered that a lot of times introspection backfires in spectacular ways that undermine people’s health, their ability to think, and their relationships. That was a pivotal moment for me. It raised lots of questions: Why is introspection sometimes good and sometimes bad? Once it goes awry, what can we do to bring it back on track? I went to grad school to learn how to use science to answer those questions, working under Walter Mischel to help me do it. It’s the big picture question that has really fueled a lot of my research ever since over the past 20 years, and it’s the focus of Chatter. In the book I define chatter as the cyclical negative thoughts and emotions that turn our capacity for introspection into a curse rather than a blessing.