The As If Principle
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- —
The central idea of Wiseman's book Rip It Up, and an old one in psychology going back to William James. The standard model is that thoughts and emotions create behaviour: you feel happy, so you smile. Wiseman's point is that there is a back channel running the other way. If you force yourself to carry out the behaviour associated with a state, that behaviour influences the thoughts and emotions — force your face into a smile and you feel happier. You behave as if, and the as-if creates the internal state. Rip It Up applies this well beyond facial expressions, into persuasion and motivation. Wiseman is careful about the evidence: the narrow facial feedback hypothesis has proved difficult to replicate, but he believes there is still a real phenomenon at the core to be explained and used.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Name the state you want
Decide the emotion or disposition you are trying to produce — happier, more confident, kinder, more motivated. The principle needs a target state, not a general mood improvement.
- 2
Identify the behaviour that normally follows it
Work out what someone already in that state does. Happiness produces a smile; kindness produces kind acts. This is the behaviour you will run in reverse.
- 3
Perform the behaviour deliberately
Carry out the associated behaviour without waiting for the feeling that usually causes it. This is the operative step — you behave as if you already have the state.
Pro tip Wiseman's version of becoming a kind person: go and do kind things, rather than telling a mirror you are kind.
- 4
Let the back channel run
The behaviour feeds back into thoughts and emotions rather than the other way round. The state follows the action, so the action has to come first and repeatedly.
- 5
Test it on yourself and keep what works
Wiseman's general position on these techniques is that people differ — if you find it useful, do it, and if you don't, stop. He personally does not use self-affirmation before talks because it does not work for him.
Watch out The facial feedback hypothesis specifically has proved hard to replicate, so treat any single lab result as provisional and judge by your own outcome.
In the wild
Wiseman's simplest illustration of the principle: the ordinary assumption is that feeling happy makes you smile, and that is almost certainly true. But run it backwards — force your face into a smile and you feel happier. This is the William James notion he thinks James referred to as the as if principle: you behave as if, and that creates the thoughts and emotions. Ali first encountered a version of it around the time he discovered 59 Seconds, phrased as arguably we don't smile because we're happy, we're happy because we smile.
→ A one-second, zero-cost demonstration that behaviour can feed emotion, not only the reverse.
Common mistakes
Confusing it with affirmations
Affirmations assert a state verbally without the behaviour, and Wiseman is not a fan — research shows they can worsen things for people with low self-esteem, who conclude they are lying. The as if principle requires you to actually do the associated behaviour.
Assuming every published effect replicates
Wiseman is explicit that parts of the facial feedback work have proved difficult to replicate, and that the replication issue has hit right across psychology. Treating the narrow lab finding as settled overstates what the evidence supports.
Expecting it to override circumstances
Wiseman's own framing is that these books give general advice — some things work for you, some don't. The as if principle nudges state through behaviour; it is not a replacement for changing a situation that is genuinely wrong.
From the transcript
“I think some of that has proven difficult to replicate.”
From the episode
The Sure-Fire Way To Be Luckier In Life - Advice From Psychology Professor Richard Wiseman