Why We Love Advice Columns, According to Psychologists

Taking someone else’s advice, even when you ask for it, is difficult. Entire studies have been conducted just to understand the widespread phenomenon of “advice discounting.” But even as we ignore the well-intentioned suggestions of our friends, families and therapists, many of us come back week after week to the advice columns published by a slew of print and digital media outlets. It’s hard to say exactly how many people read advice columns, but it’s clear that many have built devoted followings over the years. The workplace-focused “Ask a Manager,” for example, receives 2.4 million visits a year and 50 questions a day, writes Alison Green, the author behind that column for the past decade, writes in Vox. Several advice columnists, including Green and Ask Polly’s Heather Havrilesky, have parlayed their success into books. It’s tempting to think the allure of these columns is rooted in schadenfreude. But Lori Gottlieb, the psychotherapist who writes the Atlantic’s “Dear Therapist” column, says the appeal stems from the fact that, though we all feel unique, our problems tend to be shared, at least to some degree. “Readers might say to their friends, ‘I’m reading it because it’s voyeuristic and fun,'” Gottlieb says. “But I think that people are really reading it the same way they’re ‘asking for a friend.’ They really find pieces of their own lives in e...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Mental Health/Psychology Source Type: news