Crum’s 2023 Study Finds Metacognitive Stress Training Improves Health and Performance
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 30
Crum’s 2023 Study Finds Metacognitive Stress Training Improves Health and Performance
1 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 30
Summary
A 2023 Journal of Experimental Psychology: General study found Crum’s metacognitive stress training improved self-reported physical health symptoms and work performance versus a wait-listed control group.
The approach outperformed simple “stress is enhancing” messaging by helping participants keep a stress-is-enhancing mindset even after seeing evidence of stress’s negative effects 1 to 2 weeks later.
Crum says mindset shapes stress through 4 channels—attention, motivation, emotion and physiology—with evidence it can lower salivary cortisol and support resilience, optimism, and lower anxiety and depressive symptoms.
A 2017 experiment with 113 participants similarly showed that brief stress-mindset training improved positive emotions and cognitive flexibility during a mock job interview, suggesting beliefs about stress can be trained.
Experts say the findings do not erase stress’s harms, especially when chronic, but suggest people can better use stress by acknowledging it, linking it to what they value, and channeling the response into performance.