Aug. 7, 2009 — Individuals who rely on sheer willpower to assist them lose weight, stop smoking, or beat other addictions more frequently than not end up giving in to enticement, and presently unused inquire about may offer assistance explain why.
The ponder found that people tend to overestimate their ability to resist solid urges, which those who are most certain almost their resolve are most likely to lose it.
Instead of depend on self-control in circumstances where temptations arise, the most ideal to way stay in control is to maintain a strategic distance from those circumstances inside and out, says psychologist and lead analyst Loran Nordgren, PhD, of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
“The key is simply to dodge any circumstance where indecencies and other shortcomings thrive and, most imperatively, for individuals to keep a humble view of their willpower,” he says in a news statement.
Nordgren and colleagues conducted a series of tests on college students examining their reactions when uncovered to temptation.
In one experiment, smokers who most emphatically believed they seem resist the encourage to smoke were twice as likely to light up a cigarette as were smokers who perceived themselves as having low self-control.
In another test, hungry students more accurately predicted their ability to resist a future tempting snack than those who were not hungry, recommending that the absence of starvation strings makes individuals careless about their control over nourishment.
The findings, which appear in the upcoming issue of the diary Mental Science, have implications for anybody attempting to overcome addiction, be it to food, alcohol, drugs, sex, or any number of other behaviors, Nordgren notes.
“We uncover ourselves to more allurement than is wise, and along these lines we have millions of individuals suffering with obesity, addictions, and other undesirable lifestyles,” he says. “And whereas our ponder focused on individual behaviors like smoking and eating, it is easy to apply our discoveries to a broader context.”