What is the law of attraction, and what does research say about positive thinking?

What does the law of attraction claim, and what did people observe?

The claim, in its own words. The official site of The Secret says that under the law of attraction, “like attracts like.” Everything that comes into your life, it says, arrives through the magnetic power of your thoughts. The same page points readers to gratitude, visualization and “believing you are already wealthy.” Its history page says Rhonda Byrne first glimpsed the idea in The Science of Getting Rich, a 1910 book by Wallace D. Wattles, and then traced it back through thousands of years.

What was observed. Researchers at the University of Queensland who built a scale to measure belief in manifesting grant that part of this is true. Belief and effort do shape success to some degree, and expectations can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. One could see manifesting as exactly that, they note: people set goals, act on them and spot chances because they are paying attention.

What was inferred. The law of attraction goes further. Manifesting, as those researchers define it, adds a partnership with cosmic or spiritual forces. The official site says each thought has its own frequency that radiates out, interacts with the material world and draws like things back. That is the part that can be tested.

What does the evidence show?

Fantasies versus expectations. In a 2002 paper, Gabriele Oettingen and Doris Mayer separated positive expectations, judging a good outcome as likely based on past experience, from positive fantasies, pleasant images of a desired future. In four studies, expectations predicted more effort and success, and fantasies predicted less. In one small study, students finishing graduate school at a German university who often had positive fantasies about starting work had, two years later, sent fewer job applications, received fewer job offers and earned less. Among 51 people having hip-replacement surgery, those with more positive fantasies about recovery were doing worse two weeks later, as rated by their physical therapists.

In later experiments, people asked to imagine an idealized future showed less energy, on body and behavior measures, than people who questioned that future or imagined something negative or neutral. A 2016 paper found that positive fantasies went with fewer signs of depression at the time but predicted more signs later, over periods of up to seven months. All three papers include Oettingen as an author, so repeats by other teams matter.

Optimism and health. Optimism, usually defined as expecting good things to happen, is a kind of positive expectation. A 2019 review pooled 15 studies with 229,391 people, followed for 13.8 years on average. The most optimistic people had about a one-third lower risk of heart attacks, strokes and related events than the least optimistic, and a 14% lower risk of dying from any cause. Nearly all the studies pointed the same way, but the size of the link varied a lot. Small studies finding no benefit seemed to be missing, a sign of publication bias; adjusting for that shrank the links, but they remained. These studies show a link, not a cause. The authors point to possible pathways, including healthier habits such as better diets and keeping up exercise.

The link has limits. In a study of 179 people with non-small cell lung cancer, optimism before treatment did not predict survival. The authors warned that urging patients only to “be positive” may add to the burden of having cancer while offering little benefit, at least for this type of cancer.

Belief in manifesting. In three U.S. surveys of 1,023 people, over one third endorsed manifesting. Believers rated themselves as more successful, but in the survey that checked, their income and education were no higher. They were more drawn to risky investments, more likely to report a past bankruptcy, and expected unlikely success sooner. As the authors note, these are correlations, so any claim about cause is speculative.

Mind over matter. Lab tests of mind over matter have asked people to sway dice or, later, random-number machines by intention. A 2006 review of 380 random-number-machine studies found a statistically significant but very small overall effect and showed that publication bias could in principle produce it. Dean Radin and colleagues replied that selective reporting is an unlikely explanation and that the studies provide evidence for a genuine effect. The review’s authors answered that publication bias is still the simplest explanation, while granting that this cannot be settled until such studies must be registered in advance (see our answer on psychic abilities).

What is the strongest objection, and what is unresolved?

“It worked for me.” You may remember picturing something that then came true. That experience is real, but people can overestimate their own influence. In one set of experiments, spectators who first pictured a player’s success were more likely to believe they had influenced his basketball shots. A fair test counts the misses as well as the hits; our guide to common thinking traps explains why.

“Brain waves are real.” They are. Brain cells communicate with tiny electrical signals, and a test called an EEG records that activity as brain waves. The waves even have frequencies: they are faster when you are awake and slower in some stages of sleep. But recording them is not the same as showing that thoughts pull people, money or events toward us.

“It is a spiritual law, not physics.” The law of attraction also carries a spiritual message: in the site’s words, “the Universe wants you to succeed.” Whether the universe cares in that sense is Beyond science. The U.S. National Academies say supernatural entities are not part of nature and cannot be investigated by science. But the site also makes a science claim, that thoughts have frequencies that interact with the material world. That part can be checked, and the evidence above does not support it.

Still unresolved. Researchers are still working out why optimists tend to be healthier, and a 2021 review of the WOOP method could not tell how its effects change over time.

What do people often get wrong?

• “Positive thinking is useless.” No. Expecting success, based on what you have done before, goes with more effort and better results.
• “If something bad happened, you attracted it.” No study on this page supports that. The manifesting researchers cite warnings that self-help insisting on positive thinking can bring false hope and victim blaming, and that believing thoughts can cure illness may delay medical care.
• “Daydreaming is bad.” Not always. Oettingen and Mayer say positive fantasies may help people explore their possibilities. Oettingen’s research page adds that when a situation cannot be mastered or given up, such as a terminal illness, positive fantasies should be beneficial.
• “Picturing the goal is enough.” The research points the other way: dreams work better when you also face the obstacles.

What works better, and where can believers and skeptics agree?

Oettingen’s alternative is called mental contrasting: imagine the future you want, then the obstacle in your present reality. Her research page reports that this helps people commit to goals when success looks likely, and let go of goals when it does not. Combined with if-then plans, it is taught as WOOP:

1. Wish: choose something important to you, challenging but possible.
2. Outcome: imagine the best result and how it would feel.
3. Obstacle: find the main obstacle inside you, such as a habit, a feeling or a belief.
4. Plan: frame it as “If [obstacle], then I will [action].”

Does it work? A 2021 meta-analysis of 21 studies with 15,907 people found a small-to-medium benefit for reaching goals, and warned that publication bias means the true effect may be smaller. Oettingen is an author of at least 13 of those 21 studies, so independent repeats matter here too. A 2019 meta-analysis found a similar short-term effect on health habits.

Common ground. Hope matters: confident expectations go with effort and success. Actions matter: optimism’s health links may run partly through daily habits. Kindness matters: no one should be told that an illness or a loss was their own thoughts’ fault. And whether the universe is on our side stays a question of faith. For more, see Can meditation change the brain?, What makes a life well lived? and our story on what research shows about happiness.

How can you check it yourself?

• Ask for the study. When a product or course says science has confirmed something, ask which study, how many people, and compared with whom.
• Keep score. For a month, write down each wish you focus on and what happened, including the misses.
• Try a WOOP. The WOOP site says an immediate problem may take only about 30 seconds to work through. Notice what you actually do differently.
• Read the research. The manifesting surveys and the 2019 optimism review are free to read online.

The central claim of the law of attraction, that thoughts pull events toward you, is Not supported. Hope joined to a plan has support in studies, with modest effects.