{"id":3795,"date":"2018-09-20T16:41:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T21:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=3795"},"modified":"2018-09-16T11:40:28","modified_gmt":"2018-09-16T16:40:28","slug":"the-self-control-paradox-resistance-is-often-futile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/the-self-control-paradox-resistance-is-often-futile\/","title":{"rendered":"The Self-Control Paradox: Resistance is (Often) Futile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Wilde famously said that he could resist everything but temptation.<\/p>\n

This may be the only way that I’m a lot like Wilde. You, too, probably resemble this great Irish wit.<\/p>\n

\"self-control<\/a><\/p>\n

Misunderstanding Self-Control<\/h2>\n

Self-control seems like a straightforward concept.<\/p>\n

In front of me is a slice of chocolate cake. Or pizza. Or the very latest tech gizmo.<\/p>\n

I really want it. Like, a lot<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But I steel myself and, like Odysseus resisting the Sirens, I deny myself this treat. That’s self-control.<\/p>\n

Much of the research into self-control resembles this scenario.\u00a0Roy Baumeister, one of the best-known self-control researchers, often asked study participants to resist chocolate chip cookies.<\/p>\n

If you can resist freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies…well…that’s self-control.<\/p>\n

Clearly, if we want to helps our students with self-control, we should help them resist such temptations.<\/p>\n

The Self-Control Paradox<\/h2>\n

Or, maybe not.<\/p>\n

Maybe you, and me, and Oscar Wilde are all really bad at resisting temptation. Maybe that’s not how self-control works\u00a0at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

Instead, in one of the most interesting psychology studies I’ve read<\/a>, several researchers come to a different conclusion.<\/p>\n

People who successfully resist temptation don’t stare down the chocolate chip cookies and boldly exert their self-control.<\/p>\n

Instead, they use their self-control to avoid temptation in the first place.<\/p>\n

That’s right: effective self-control isn’t exactly self-control. Instead, people who score highest on measures of self-control use it to develop virtuous habits<\/em> and avoid tempting situations<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The reason I’m good at, say, staying on my diet is NOT that I resist cupcakes.<\/p>\n

Instead, I’m good at dieting because a) I have gotten in the habit of making a salad, and b) my lunchtime walk never approaches the pizza joint.<\/p>\n

I never have to resist temptation, because I use self-control to avoid temptation in the first place.<\/p>\n

Odysseus, Reconsidered<\/h2>\n

Come to think of it: Odysseus didn’t use his self-control to resist the Sirens. He was, after all, tied to the mast<\/em> at the time he sailed past them.<\/p>\n

Instead, he used his self-control to prepare for temptation<\/strong>. Because he knew he couldn’t resist it, he made a plan to ensure the temptation wouldn’t lead him astray.<\/p>\n

If we want our students to improve their executive functioning, if we want them to get better at self-control<\/a>, then we should not focus on resisting temptation.<\/p>\n

Instead, we should focus on\u00a0avoiding<\/em> temptation.<\/p>\n

Resistance might be futile. But: the self-control paradox suggests we can bypass resistance altogether.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “self-control paradox” leads to a surprise. We shouldn’t help students resist temptation. Instead, we want them to avoid temptation in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-3795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-self-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3795"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3807,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions\/3807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}