Research paper
Polivy J, Herman CP. If at first you don’t succeed: False hopes of self-change. American Psychologist. 2002;57(9):677-689. doi:10.1037//0003-066x.57.9.677
Why we cite it
Develops ”false hope syndrome”, which the authors ”have described” before (Polivy & Herman 2000), as a framework for why people repeatedly attempt and fail at self-change. Here ”the authors further develop their conceptualization of this syndrome and review its evidential basis”. Published in American Psychologist. The syndrome is ”characterized by unrealistic expectations about the likely speed, amount, ease, and consequences of self-change attempts”. The paper also explains the restart cycle: each failure is interpreted in ways that preserve hope for the next attempt rather than prompting a realistic reassessment.
DOI: 10.1037/0003-066x.57.9.677 · PubMed 12237978 · Publisher
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