{"id":9044,"date":"2019-01-26T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/?p=9044"},"modified":"2020-06-28T01:41:39","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T04:41:39","slug":"stoic-week-2018-report-part-4-feedback-on-stoic-week-and-overall-conclusions-tim-lebon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/stoic-week-2018-report-part-4-feedback-on-stoic-week-and-overall-conclusions-tim-lebon\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoic Week 2018 Report Part 4: Feedback on Stoic Week and Overall Conclusions by \tTim LeBon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One main activity of the Modern Stoicism organization is carrying out research on the impact of adopting Stoic practices, perspectives, and principles on those who do so.  Every year we run the Stoic Week online class, and we also gather valuable data through the surveys before and after participants engage in the class.  Tim LeBon is our lead quantitative researcher, and he does invaluable service in compiling and interpreting the data collected, producing a set of Stoic Week Reports.  This is the fourth and final report for this year, which you can download a copy of (with all of the appendices) by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This article is the fourth and final report\non Stoic Week 2018. The previously published reports summarised the  demographics<\/a>,\nthe relationships between well-being and degree of Stoicism at the start\nof Stoic Week<\/a>  and the  impact\nof taking part in Stoic Week<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report is divided into the following 5 sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) How Much Has Stoic Week Helped?
2) Which parts of Stoic Week were most helpful.
3) Other Significant Findings
4) Overall Status of Modern Stoicism Research
5) Recommended Next Steps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) How Much Has Stoic Week Helped?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Table 1: Ratings of how useful Stoic Week was\nin various areas of life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 3 of this suite of reports described the benefit of Stoic Week as measured by  psychometric scales for life satisfaction, flourishing,  positive emotions,  negative emotions and  degree of Stoicism.  For the record, the improvements were 12%, 8%, 9.5%, 14% and 10% respectively.  Table 1 (above)  adds to these findings the participants\u2019  sense of how <\/em> Stoic Week helped them. The improvements reported in table 1 are almost uniformly high.  Overall Stoic Week was rated as  helping on average by 4 marks out of 5 (80%).  The areas where Stoic Week was judged to be of most use benefit were \u201cknowledge of Stoicism\u201d and \u201cmanaging emotions\u201d closely followed by \u201cbecoming wiser.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These results reproduce the results of previous years. In 2018 we asked additional questions which resulted in some interesting findings. Specifically , we asked people about how much participants thought it would benefit themselves<\/em> if they continued practising Stoicism and how much it would benefit other people.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits of Stoicism (948 responses)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
How much (on a scale of 0 meaning \u201cnone\u201d to 10 meaning \u201ca <\/strong>
lot\u201d)<\/strong> do you think <\/strong>
continuing to practiceStoicism would <\/strong>
benefit <\/strong> <\/td>		\n Benefit Me<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Benefit other people<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Average<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 8.9<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 8.4<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 0 (none)<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n .3<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n .5<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 1-4<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 2<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 3<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 5-6<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 4<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 11<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 7<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 7<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 10<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 8<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 16<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 19.5<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 9<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 14<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 12<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 10 (a lot)<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 57<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n 44<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Table 2: How much participants believed\ncontinuing to practice Stoicism would benefit themselves and others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many modern (non-Stoic) commentators see a sharp divergence between  prudence and morality\u2013 you need to choose either to  maximise your own well-being or to be moral. The Stoics, in contrast, did not see such a sharp contrast between prudence and morality and indeed argued that pursuing virtue was the way to achieve both. The data presented in table 1  can be interpreted as providing some evidence for the Stoic view.  As would be expected according to the Stoic view, participants believe that Stoicism benefits both themselves and others. Perhaps surprisingly, given the apparent sacrifices practising Stoicism implies (\u201cdon\u2019t focus on pleasure\u201d, \u201chelp other people\u201d and  \u201cdevote a lot of time working on being a good Stoic\u201d), participants rated the benefits to themselves as even greater than the benefits to others.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How much do you think it would benefit the world in general if <\/strong>
more people practiced Stoicism?<\/strong> <\/td>		\n %<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Average\n <\/td>\n 9<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 0 (none)\n <\/td>\n .5<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 1-4\n <\/td>\n 1<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 5-6\n <\/td>\n 6.5<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 7\n <\/td>\n 6<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 8\n <\/td>\n 15.5<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 9\n <\/td>\n 14.5<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 10 ( a lot)\n <\/td>\n 56<\/strong>\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Table 3: How much participants believed continuing to practice Stoicism would benefit themselves and others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked a question about how much the world<\/em> would benefit if more people\npracticed Stoicism, the answer was an emphatic \u201ca lot\u201d (average score 9 out of\n10). In other words , those who had experienced Stoicism gave a resounding vote\nof confidence to the outreach purpose of the Modern Stoicism project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Which parts of Stoic Week were most helpful?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As in previous years we  asked participants to tell which elements of Stoic Week they found most beneficial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Table 4: How useful were the daily exercises?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Table 4 shows, all  the exercises for each day were rated highly, with a difference of only .3 (out of 5) between the lowest (3.9 for Thursday \u2013 the community of Mankind) and the highest (4.2 for  Tuesday, Virtues and the different). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Table\n5:  Ratings of Audio recordings of\nMeditation Routine Audio Recordings, Stoic Week 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar story emerges when we look\nat table 5 above which shows ratings of the audio recordings. They were all\nrated highly, with again only a .3 difference between the lowest (3.7 for the\nStoic Attitudes meditation) and the highest (4 for the View from Above)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked whether they planned to\ncontinue  practising Stoicism, 51% of\nparticipants  gave their answer as the\nmaximum (10 out of 10). the average degree of aspiration to continue with\nStoicism was 8.6 out of 10. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time we asked participants about how <\/em>they intended to maintain their practice and their answers make interesting reading<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Daily Stoic Meditation (specifically the morning and evening Meditations)<\/li>
  • Read the main original Stoic texts<\/li>
  • Do Stoic week again on my own initiative<\/li>
  • Speak to partner and friends about Stoicism<\/li>
  • Watch You tube videos or podcasts about Stoicism regularly<\/li>
  • Daily reflection and\/or journaling of my progress in Stoicism<\/li>
  • Focus on specific aspects of Stoicism such as the virtues  and the dichotomy of control<\/li>
  • Use the self-monitoring sheet from Stoic Week<\/li>
  • Download the audios from Stoic Week and listen to them<\/li>
  • Read modern books on Stoicism<\/li>
  • Practice \u201csage on my shoulder\u201d technique regularly<\/li>
  • Do the View from Above meditation and reflect on our  place in the universe<\/li>
  • Set reminders (e.g. on phone) to do my Stoic Practice and of key Stoic learnings (daily or weekly)<\/li>
  • Set aside time for regular practice, prioritise it<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Perhaps the above list will provide inspiration to some readers about how to maintain their practice of Stoicism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3) Other  Significant Findings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    • Participants reported spending on average 24 minutes on Stoic Week each day. 13% of participants said they spent under 10 minutes each day whilst  5% told us they spent over an hour each day on Stoic activities. Most people (62%) spent between 10 minutes and half an hour each day on Stoic  activities during Stoic Week.<\/li>
    • There was a 33% increase in participant\u2019s professed knowledge of Stoicism.  Similar numbers of people said they \u201cknow a bit\u201d about Stoicism (46% before and 47% after Stoic Week) but there was a big reduction in participants saying they were \u201cnovices\u201d  (26% went down to 9%) and 43% said they know quite a lot about Stoicism, compared to only 21% who put themselves in this category at the start of Stoic Week.<\/li>
    • Bucking the previous trend towards using the website away from using a  pdf. there was surprisingly little change in the way that Stoic Week booklet was accessed in 2018 with over a quarter of people still using a pdf.<\/li>
    • Whilst at the start of week only 43% of participants said they were \u201cMore Stoic than not Stoic\u201d  (32%) or  that they \u201cconsider myself  a Stoic\u201d (11%)  , this increased to 81 % by the end of stoic week, comprising 62% who said they were now \u201cMore Stoic than not Stoic\u201d and 19% who said they \u201cconsider themselves to be a Stoic\u201d.<\/li>
    • When asked about on how many days they actively engaged with the materials (meaning spending more than 10 minutes on them) the answers ranged from the most engaged day (Day 1, Happiness 16%) to the least engaged (Day 7, Nature, 12%). This implies a gradual reduction in the number of people engaging with the material each day, even amongst those who complete the end of Stoic Week questionnaire. <\/li>
    • Relatively few people use the self-monitoring sheet at all (only 39%) whilst most people attempt the morning meditation at least once (93%), the evening meditation (90%) and listen to the audio recordings (60%)<\/li>
    • Most people did try to apply Stoic principles each day \u2013 62% saying they tried to every day<\/em> of Stoic Week<\/li>
    • When asked how they interacted with other people in Stoic Week, 27% of participants said they spoke to people at home about Stoicism, 18% said they took part in the Modern Stoicism forum, 12% said they attempted to teach Stoicism to other people and 12% said they spoke to people in their workplace about Stoicism. Only 3% of Stoic Week participants were at Stoicon or similar event.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Typical comments about how Stoicism benefitted participants included<\/p>\n\n\n\n