People told to forget dream, dig in deeper

LIMA, Ohio, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- People cling to dreams until they are shown they're not qualified and bad things can happen if they pursue their goals and fail, U.S. researchers say.

Patrick Carroll and Robert Arkin both of Ohio State University at Lima and James Sheppard of the University of Florida said the research involved separate groups of upper class business and psychology students at Ohio State.

The students signed up to meet with a career adviser to learn about a supposedly new master's degree program in business psychology that would train them for "high-paying consulting positions as business psychologists."

The students were placed in four groups and told to complete a questionnaire. All the student were told their GPAs were too low.

The control group was given a handout explaining their grades were too low. A "career adviser," a researcher, met with the groups and told one group its GPA was too low; a second group was told the students weren't what the program was looking for; a third group was told they were not qualified and if they did enter the program would have difficulty and would ultimately end up with no job prospects.

The study, published in the journal Social Cognition, said all three groups told they weren't qualified held on to the dream and became more committed. Only the last group -- told they would suffer if they pursued the dream and happened to get accepted -- lowered expectations.