It might not be the specific behavioral-psych-like things you do that are doing the work here.
It might instead be focused attention on “the process” + a ritual + a sense of confidence granted by “science.”
Under this theory, you could swap out the ritual (2 minutes on/off or gummies) with any other ritual, as long as you could make yourself feel confident that it would work, and spent time visualizing and explaining how the arbitrary ritual would be effective.
For example, maybe if I’m having trouble studying on a regular schedule, I could buy a funny hat that I think of as my thinking cap. I decide that the thinking cap will make me want to study. And I do whatever explanatory/visualizing tricks I need for about an hour or two to endow the thinking cap hypothesis with an aura of reality.
Under this hypothesis, the real reason why these specific behavioral techniques are so powerful is that it’s easy for you to construct that compelling narrative, because you are a believer in science, and this seems like that.
A scientific skeptic would have low success with these techniques, but high success with techniques that have been blessed by their preferred sources of wisdom.
If true, others wanting to emulate your experiment would actually not want to just copy you, unless they found your specific ritual to seem highly compelling. Even if they did, they’d want to spend about as much time as you did on visualizing/explaining and experimenting with it. And if they didn’t like your ritual, they’d want to first search for one they find more compelling.
It might not be the specific behavioral-psych-like things you do that are doing the work here.
It might instead be focused attention on “the process” + a ritual + a sense of confidence granted by “science.”
Under this theory, you could swap out the ritual (2 minutes on/off or gummies) with any other ritual, as long as you could make yourself feel confident that it would work, and spent time visualizing and explaining how the arbitrary ritual would be effective.
For example, maybe if I’m having trouble studying on a regular schedule, I could buy a funny hat that I think of as my thinking cap. I decide that the thinking cap will make me want to study. And I do whatever explanatory/visualizing tricks I need for about an hour or two to endow the thinking cap hypothesis with an aura of reality.
Under this hypothesis, the real reason why these specific behavioral techniques are so powerful is that it’s easy for you to construct that compelling narrative, because you are a believer in science, and this seems like that.
A scientific skeptic would have low success with these techniques, but high success with techniques that have been blessed by their preferred sources of wisdom.
If true, others wanting to emulate your experiment would actually not want to just copy you, unless they found your specific ritual to seem highly compelling. Even if they did, they’d want to spend about as much time as you did on visualizing/explaining and experimenting with it. And if they didn’t like your ritual, they’d want to first search for one they find more compelling.