Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

by Emily Nagoski

THE OWL AND THE CHEESE Here’s a real study that real scientists really conducted:11 Research participants were given some mazes—just lines on paper—and instructed that their goal was to get the cartoon mouse from one side of the maze to the other. In one version of the maze, a cartoon owl loomed over the page, hunting the mouse. In another version, a morsel of cheese awaited the mouse at its destination. Which group completed the maze faster, the ones who were moving toward the cheese, or the ones who were fleeing from the owl? The cheese group. Participants completed more mazes, more quickly, when their imaginations were propelled toward a reward even as mild as cartoon cheese, than when running away from an uncomfortable state even as subtle as the threat of a cartoon owl.