Mindset · editorial rating
Rhonda Byrne
The Secret's central promise runs straight into the research: fantasizing about outcomes tends to reduce effort, and rehearsing the process beats picturing the prize. Byrne keeps a clean public record and a cheap product, which is the only thing holding her score above the floor.
Editorial opinion: SG Score 36 out of 100. Verdict: OVERSTATED. This is not a customer star rating and not a finding by a court.
Open the full interactive receipt · How the score is built · More in Mindset · Research library
Strengths
- Gratitude practices she recommends have modest research support (R40)
- Encourages readers to get specific about what they want, which goal research favors (R01)
- Low cost: one book at bookstore prices, no pricey seminar ladder we found
Weaknesses
- Live Science reviewed the book and called the law of attraction pseudoscience, including the quantum wording (S3).
- Skeptical Inquirer quotes the book as saying thought, not food, is what puts on weight (S4).
- A psychology professor writing in PsyPost said results still take work, skill, and persistence (S5).
Claims
fails. Everything that comes into your life you are attracting into your life by your thoughts.
No evidence supports a law of attraction. Studies find that positive fantasies about a goal sap energy (R13) and that pairing the wish with obstacles works better (R12).
fails. Readers can create, intentionally and effortlessly, a joyful life using the law that governs all lives.
Visualizing the outcome is weaker than rehearsing the steps to get there (R41). Researchers who reviewed the book stress that results take work, skill and persistence, which the book downplays.
fails. The book offers stories of eradicating disease and acquiring massive wealth through the law of attraction.
No evidence thought alone cures disease. Skeptical Inquirer quotes the book saying thought, not food, is what puts on weight (S4). Critics note the flip side blames the sick for their illness (S3, S5), and upbeat self-talk can backfire for people with low self-esteem (R39).
Also in Mindset
- Mel Robbins (61, MIXED)
- Tony Robbins (36, OVERSTATED)
- Napoleon Hill (35, OVERSTATED)
Sources
- S1 The Secret. Simon & Schuster (Atria Books/Beyond Words). https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Secret/Rhonda-Byrne/The-Secret/9781582701707
- S2 Rhonda Byrne's Biography. The Secret official website. https://www.thesecret.tv/rhonda-byrnes-biography/
- S3 The Pseudoscience of 'The Secret'. Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/5303-pseudoscience-secret.html
- S4 Secrets and Lies. Skeptical Inquirer. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/secrets-and-lies/
- S5 The law of attraction debunked: A psychology professor explains what's wrong with Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. PsyPost. https://www.psypost.org/the-law-of-attraction-debunked-a-psychology-professor-explains-whats-wrong-with-rhonda-byrnes-the-secret/
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