Dr. Kentaro Fujita

On a lot of college campuses today, you will see banners that say, you belong.

And they're trying to promote inclusion and make everyone feel at home on the college campus.

And my own intuition about this is I'm not so sure how effective those are.

I think they're a lot like the motivational posters that you're talking about that used to be in the offices.

However, if someone says, hey, you know what?

I think you really belong.

I think I'm really happy that you're here.

It's a very similar message.

It might even use the same words.

If it's conveyed in a way that makes you feel like they understand you and that you guys are on the same wavelength, that actually has a very powerful effect.

And there's some ongoing research in my lab that that actually, even though it's the same words, there's something about that exchange of like, we see the world in the same way that convinces me that what you're saying is true.

And so therefore it has a much bigger impact on me.

So I bring this all back to the self-control by saying, well, if, you know, so you talked about is self-talk more effective than other talking?

I suspect other talking would be much more effective if you were able to create this kind of reality, right?

Where if you had this conversation and you said, I'm going to do this.

And then other person says, I know you're gonna do this, right?

I bet that has a lot more power than you saying to somebody else, you know, I'm gonna do this and they're like, uh-huh, uh-huh, good luck, right?

So there are, because humans are social species, there is a special power

when we can create a sense of oneness with others that makes our thoughts become real.

So if by saying it, by writing it, my thoughts are becoming real and have more power over, those are much more likely to have an effect.