Canadian experts have found that so - called self - help books may actually do more harm than good to people who really need help.Researchers say that individuals   with low respect felt much worse after repeating positive statements about themselves. In their study, psychologists Joanne Wood and John Lee sought to determine how positive thinking affected people with different levels of self - confidence.They questioned dozens of people both made and female, analyzed their self - worth and optimism by means of the standard psychological methods and then asked them to write down their thoughts and feelings.The scoring system ranged from 0 to 35. During the experiment, the researchers asked a total of 68 participants to repeat the self-help book phrase, "I am a lovable person." After that they measured the participants' moods and their feelings about themselves.The results revealed that the participants in the low self - respect group who repeated the mantra  , were feeling much worse afterwards, when compared to other participants in low self - respect group who did not repeat the phrase.Those with low self - respect who repeated the phrase scored an average of 10 points.Their counterparts   with equally low self - respect who were not asked to repeat the statement, were able to score a little higher average of 17 points. However, individuals with high self - respect reported feeling better after repeating the positive self - statement - but only slightly.They scored an average of 31 points, compared with an average of 25 for those with equally high self - respect who did not repeat the phrase. Professor Wood urged those who promote self - help books, magazines and television shows to stop telling people that simply repeating a positive mantra could change one's life.First, people start following this idea and feel like they are not alone.They are told that all they have to do is just to read that book and then to repeat these positive statements in a hope that things will be better, and when it does not work for them and they realize that nothing gets better, then it is really frustration to people. Researchers concluded: "Repeating positive self - statements may benefit certain people such as individuals with high self - respect but discourage the very people who need confidence the most." How many points did the low self - respect participants get after repeating the self - help book phrase?
An average of 10 points. An average of 17 points. An average of 31 points. An average of 25 points.