The law of attraction
The law of attraction is the belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative events into your life. There is no scientific evidence that thoughts draw events to you. Researchers who studied belief in manifestation call many of the success industry's claims untested or pseudoscientific, with The Secret as a notable example.1 Some things near it do have research behind them, and they're covered below.
What the law of attraction claims
The core idea is "like attracts like". Teachers word it differently, but most versions share a few claims.
Your thoughts draw matching events
Think about money with a feeling of abundance, the idea goes, and money comes. Dwell on debt, and more debt comes.
"I kept saying I was broke, so I kept being broke. Now I only say I'm wealthy."
Ask, believe, receive
The 2006 book The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, set out a three-step process: ask for what you want, believe it's already yours, and feel the joy of receiving it.2
"I wrote down the exact job title I wanted, then acted every day as if I already had it."
Your feelings are a signal you send out
Many teachers say emotions are a kind of frequency or vibration that the universe answers. Good feelings attract good things, so negative feelings must be avoided.
"I can't let myself feel anxious about the scan, because worrying will attract bad news."
That last example shows where the idea can turn harmful. More on that below.
Where it comes from
The idea has roots in the New Thought movement of the late 1800s, which taught that people could rid themselves of illness through positive visualization and self-talk.1 The Secret brought it to a mass audience in 2006. According to a 2023 study, the book and film went on to sell 30 million copies.1
Why it can seem to work
Plenty of people say the law of attraction changed their lives. Several well-studied processes can explain that. No cosmic force required.
- You notice what you're looking for. Confirmation bias is the habit of seeking and reading evidence in ways that fit what you already believe.3 After deciding the universe will send opportunities, you spot more of them and forget the times nothing came.
- You act differently. People who expect to succeed, based on what they know, put in more effort and did better in long-term studies.4 If believing makes you apply for the job, the application is doing the work.
- You hear the stories that worked. The people whose wishes came true tell the story. The people whose wishes didn't usually don't write books.
- Visualize the outcome and it will come: Picture the outcome, then the obstacle, then make a plan. That has evidence.
- Believe it's already yours: Expecting you can succeed, based on real reasons, goes with more effort.
- Only think positive thoughts: Noticing hard feelings is normal and doesn't attract anything.
What the manifestation studies found
Thoughts attracting events has never been demonstrated
The researchers who built a scale to measure manifestation belief write that many claims and strategies of the success industry "remain untested or are pseudoscientific".1 They name The Secret as a notable example.
Believers saw themselves as more successful, and took more risks
That 2023 study surveyed 1,023 people across three studies. Over a third endorsed manifestation beliefs.1 Higher scorers saw themselves as more successful and expected more success. They were also more drawn to risky investments, more likely to have been bankrupt, and more likely to believe they could reach unlikely success quickly.1 The data are correlational, so the authors couldn't say which came first.
Picturing the dream can lower effort
In studies by Gabriele Oettingen, people who held the most positive fantasies about a job, a crush or recovering from surgery put in less effort and did worse.4 Visualizing the outcome, the center of most law of attraction advice, is the part with the weakest track record.
Your mood doesn't decide your illness
The darkest side of the idea is that people attract their own disease. In a large study of people with head and neck cancer, emotional state at the start did not predict survival.5 Feeling scared or low while you're ill is not a failing, and in that study it didn't predict a worse outcome.
The other law of attraction
Psychology has its own "law of attraction", and it's about people, not wishes. In experiments from the 1960s, Donn Byrne found that people liked a stranger more the greater the share of attitudes they had in common.6 This similarity effect is sometimes called the law of attraction.7 It's about who we like. Not the universe.
Watching your own thoughts for mistakes
The law of attraction can feel hopeful, and hope is a real thing to want. It can also leave you watching your own thoughts nervously, afraid a bad mood will cost you. If you notice that, you're not doing it wrong. It's what the belief asks of you.
Some people feel ashamed when a wish doesn't come true, as if they didn't believe hard enough. That shame isn't evidence of anything. Plenty happens for reasons no one controls.
If what you want is your goal
If what you want from the law of attraction is a better shot at your goals, these have evidence:
- Picture the wish, then the obstacle. Contrasting a wish with what's in the way helped people commit to goals they could reach.8 The vision board guide builds this in.
- Write an if-then plan. "If X happens, then I'll do Y" helped people reach goals across 94 tests.9
- Track what you do. Recording progress helped people reach goals, especially when written down.10
The how to manifest page turns these into a step-by-step method, and goal setting covers the rest.
What is something you've hoped the universe would bring you? Write what you want, what's in the way, and one thing you could do about it this week.
Answer this with JoyQuestions people ask
Is the law of attraction real?
Not as a force that sends you what you think about. That has never been demonstrated. What is real: what you expect and how you plan change what you do, and what you do changes your results.4,9
What are the three laws of attraction?
There's no fixed list. Different teachers name different "laws". The best-known three steps come from The Secret: ask, believe and receive.2 None of them has been tested as a cause of events.
What blocks you from manifesting?
Teachers often blame doubt or "low vibrations". From the research side, what gets in the way of goals is more ordinary: no plan for obstacles, goals you don't care about, and no way to track progress. Those can all be fixed.
Is the law of attraction harmful?
It can be. Believers were more drawn to risky investments in one study.1 It can also push people to hide normal fear or sadness, or to blame themselves for illness or bad luck. Our view: as a nudge to plan and act, it does less harm than as a replacement for planning.
Related
- How to manifest: the version with evidence.
- Vision board and goal setting.
- Positive affirmations, written to be believable.