‘Manifestation’ is the belief that you can attract success in life through positive self-talk and visualisation and behaving as though you’ve already achieved your goals. As of May 2023, TikTok videos featuring the tag ‘manifestation’ have collectively garnered no fewer than 34.6 billion views, note Lucas J Dixon and colleagues at the University of Queensland in a new paper in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Though it is hugely popular, and likely to be influencing the decisions and behaviours of millions of people, belief in manifestation has so far received only scant academic investigation.

However, new work by the team suggests that people who believe in its principles — so-called ‘manifesters’ — are at increased risk of various negative outcomes, including bankruptcy. 

For their study, the researchers first developed, tested, and validated a scale to measure manifestation beliefs. This 11-item version has two sub-scales. The ‘personal power’ dimension explores the extent to which someone endorses statements that include, ‘Visualising a successful outcome causes it to be drawn closer to me’, ‘I am more likely to attract a successful outcome if I act like it has already come true’, and ‘I can speak success into existence through positive self-talk.’ 

The second sub-scale assesses beliefs about ‘cosmic collaboration’, another key element of the concept of manifestation. For example: ‘I attract success into my life with the help of the universe or a higher power’, ‘I ask the universe or higher power to bring me successes, and ‘To attract success, I align myself with cosmic forces or energies’. 

In developing the scale, using a group of 306 US-based adults, the team found that scores were not related to age, gender, or income. They also found that support for manifestation was common — 35% of their participants had some belief in its principles. 

In a second study, with a fresh group of 348 American participants, beliefs in manifestation overlapped to an extent with support for some related constructs such as ‘karmic justice’ (the belief that people’s actions are ultimately rewarded or punished). However, scores on the new scale were more strongly associated with higher levels of support for the work of well-known advocates of manifestation, such as Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, and Oprah Winfrey.

Further analyses revealed that participants who believed in manifestation tended to perceive themselves as being more successful. They also predicted that they would be more successful in the future, even if the gap between their current and predicted level of success was wide. However, results from the first study suggested that these beliefs were misguided, as the manifesters were no more successful in terms of income or level of education.

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