Does anxiety reappraisal really work: The Limits.
Does anxiety reappraisal really work? The evidence says yes, but modestly. A 2024 review found a small, real improvement, while a 2025 replication found no visible performance change. So use the sentence for the minutes before you walk in, never as a business plan.
A replication that changed feelings, not speeches.
In 2025, Michelle Poynter and Marcia Smith Pasqualini repeated Brooks's speech experiment closely. People saying "I am excited" again felt more excited. However, observers found no difference on any performance rating. So if your trusted listener hears no change, record that result instead of hiding it.
Does anxiety reappraisal really work across many trials.
In 2024, Michel Bosshard and Patrick Gomez of the University of Bern pooled 44 results. They found a small improvement, larger for speeches than written tests. They also wrote these methods are not silver bullets. Then, changing beliefs about stress alone showed no significant effect, despite promising 2013 Yale work by Alia Crum, Peter Salovey and Shawn Achor. So does anxiety reappraisal really work? Small, but real.
Rituals, lucky balls and what a sentence cannot fix.
In 2015, a study found anxious people's hand movements became more repetitive and rigid. Yet do pre performance rituals work? A 2010 lucky golf ball result failed when Robert Calin-Jageman and Tracy Caldwell retested it. That failed lucky charm effect replication matters. Also, every study measured something short, so no sentence rescues numbers that do not work.
Test whether does anxiety reappraisal really work for you.
Write down your two recording scores, even if they match, and date the entry.
Then list one plan gap, like costs or customers, that no sentence can fix.
From the book.
When Michel Bosshard and Patrick Gomez of the University of Bern pooled 44 results from randomised trials of these reframing approaches in 2024, they did find an improvement in performance, but a small one, and they wrote that these interventions are not "silver bullets". The effect looked larger for public performances, like speeches, than for written tests. Small, but real.
I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward, chapter 8: Do not calm down
Questions about does anxiety reappraisal really work.
Does anxiety reappraisal really work for long business decisions?
No study here tested that. Every one measured something short, like a song, speech, exam or pitch.
Did Roar make the author's talk better?
He cannot claim it did. However, he believes it helped that day and would ask for it again.
How large is the overall effect of reframing?
Bosshard and Gomez found a small improvement across 44 results. It looked larger for public performances than written tests.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 8, “Do not calm down”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Fear and excitement feel the same: Who Names It.
- 02 Pump up song before a presentation: Why Roar.
- 03 Say I am excited instead of nervous: Brooks's Test.
- 04 Record yourself practicing a pitch: Two Takes.
- 05 Anxiety before investor pitch: Give Nerves a Job.
- 06 Traders physiological response to risk: Listen.
- 07 Rafael Nadal pre match rituals: Get Activated.
- 08 Does anxiety reappraisal really work: The Limits.