Assisting Others Succeed: The Power of Compliments

Several new research studies have shown the true power of receiving a complement. For many its psychological powers exceed that of food, money, and even sexual activity.

At the University of Michigan 130 individuals, most of them were college students, were asked to rate different experiences on a numeric scale for how much they liked the activity and how much they desired or wanted the activity. Surprisingly to researchers self-esteem boosting experiences such as receiving a complement on something they cared about such as a grade on a test or a personal goal they had set ranked higher than did their favorite food, or favorite sexual activity.

The results at first were a surprise to researchers because historically compliments had not ranked as high in historical research investigating the same type of questions. However the follow-up study the researchers at the Michigan University provided some new insights that are dramatically changing the way people are approaching goal oriented happiness and success. The researchers provided a set of over 150 individuals with a list of enjoyable activities that included receiving money for work done, visiting with friends in an enjoyable activity such as a party, and included was a self-esteem building activity. Once again the results of the study subjects strongly favored the self-esteem building activity.

What the researchers have learned, according to Dr. Darrel Tawnege, is that complements in and of themselves are very nice, but two key distinctions can really make a difference. First, compliments mean a whole lot more when the individual giving the compliment is doing so on a topic, goal, or interest that truly means something special to them. Second, that self-esteem building activities can be and are increasingly powerful when they are meaningful endeavors. Instead of the classical self-esteem building activities nobody wanted to do, if people can do well, and be appreciated (through compliments) for activities that they truly want to succeed at you find the happiness received outweighs that of what historically were thought to be very powerful motivators for humans, such as money, food, and even sex.

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Hamilton Erridge is a weight loss professional. New Lifestyle Diet helps people lose weight and stay healthy by providing information and resources that help people make a lifestyle change so that the extra pounds shed are never put back on

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