Can't help myself
The burden of responsibility: Interpersonal costs of high self-control
Christy Zhou Koval et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, May 2015, Pages 750-766
Abstract:
The psychological literature on self-control has illustrated the many benefits experienced by people with high self-control, who are more successful both personally and interpersonally. In the current research, we explore the possibility that having high self-control also may have some interpersonal costs, leading individuals to become burdened by others’ reliance. In Studies 1 and 2, we examined the effects of actors’ self-control on observers’ performance expectations and found that observers had higher performance expectations for actors with high (vs. low) self-control. In Study 3, we tested the effect of actors’ self-control on work assigned to actors and found that observers assigned greater workloads to actors with high (vs. low) self-control. In Study 4, we examined how actors and observers differed in their assessments of the effort expended by high and low self-control actors and found that observers (but not actors) reported that high self-control actors expended less effort than low self-control actors. Finally, we found that people high (vs. low) in self-control reported greater burden from the reliance of coworkers (Study 5) and romantic partners (Study 6), and this tendency led them to feel less satisfied with their relationships (Study 6). Together, results from these studies provide novel evidence that individuals’ self-control affects others’ attitudes and behaviors toward them, and suggest that these interpersonal dynamics can have negative consequences for high self-control individuals.
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When Temptations Come Alive: How Anthropomorphism Undermines Self-Control
Julia Hur, Minjung Koo & Wilhelm Hofmann
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine how anthropomorphizing a temptation impacts consumer self-control. Six studies show that anthropomorphizing a tempting product impairs self-control not by boosting desire strength but by decreasing consumers’ experience of conflict toward consuming the product — an alarm that signals a need for self-control. As a result, consumers are less likely to initiate self-control and more likely to indulge in the product. This process occurs because an anthropomorphized product acts as another agent in the self-control dilemma, which decreases the extent to which consumers attribute the cause of and responsibility for their consumption to themselves (i.e., internal attribution).
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The Effect of Self-Control on the Construction of Risk Perceptions
Jayson Jia, Uzma Khan & Ab Litt
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We show that the way decision makers construct risk perceptions is systematically influenced by their level of self-control: low self-control results in greater weighting of probability and reduced weighting of consequences of negative outcomes in formulating overall threat perceptions. Seven studies demonstrate such distorted risk construction in wide-ranging risk domains. The effects hold for both chronic and manipulated levels of perceived self-control and are observed only for risks involving high personal agency (e.g., overeating, smoking, drinking). As an important implication of our results, we also demonstrate that those lower (higher) in self-control show relatively less (more) interest in products and lifestyle changes reducing consequences (e.g., a pill that heals liver damage from drinking) than those reducing likelihood of risks (e.g., a pill that prevents liver damage from drinking). We also explore several possible underlying processes for the observed effect and discuss the theoretical and managerial relevance of our findings.
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Michael Daly et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The capacity for self-control may underlie successful labor-force entry and job retention, particularly in times of economic uncertainty. Analyzing unemployment data from two nationally representative British cohorts (N = 16,780), we found that low self-control in childhood was associated with the emergence and persistence of unemployment across four decades. On average, a 1-SD increase in self-control was associated with a reduction in the probability of unemployment of 1.4 percentage points after adjustment for intelligence, social class, and gender. From labor-market entry to middle age, individuals with low self-control experienced 1.6 times as many months of unemployment as those with high self-control. Analysis of monthly unemployment data before and during the 1980s recession showed that individuals with low self-control experienced the greatest increases in unemployment during the recession. Our results underscore the critical role of self-control in shaping life-span trajectories of occupational success and in affecting how macroeconomic conditions affect unemployment levels in the population.
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Decision-making under uncertainty and demand for health insurance: A multidisciplinary study
Cristina Ottaviani & Daniela Vandone
Journal of Psychophysiology, Spring 2015, Pages 80-85
Abstract:
This study empirically estimated the role played by attitudes toward risk in insurance decision-making. Four hundred forty-five participants underwent the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) coupled with skin conductance recording and demographic/socio-economic questionnaires. The multiple regression model showed a higher probability of holding health insurance for people who are more risk seeking (bad performance at the IGT) but are adaptively able to feel the risk (normal anticipatory skin conductance responses to disadvantageous decks). The role played by traditional socio-economic explanatory variables (age and work status) was confirmed. Results are discussed in light of the need for interdisciplinary research.
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Tangible Temptation in the Social Dilemma: Cash, Cooperation, and Self-Control
Kristian Ove Myrseth, Gerhard Riener & Conny Wollbrant
Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
The social dilemma may involve a within-person conflict, between urges to act selfishly and better judgment to cooperate. Examining the proposition from the perspective of temptation, we pair the public good game with treatments that vary the degree to which money is abstract (numbers on-screen) or tangible (tokens or cash). We also include psychometric measures of self-control and impulsivity. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found in the treatments that render money more tangible a stronger positive association between cooperation and self-control and a stronger negative association between cooperation and impulsivity. Our results show that the representation of the endowment in the public good game matters for the role of self-control and, hence, cooperation.
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COMT Genotype, Gambling Activity, and Cognition
Jon Grant et al.
Journal of Psychiatric Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Neuropsychological studies of adults with problem gambling indicate impairments across multiple cognitive domains. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) plays a unique role in the regulation of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, and has been implicated in the cognitive dysfunction evident in problem gambling. This study examined adults with varying levels of gambling behavior to determine whether COMT genotype was associated with differences in gambling symptoms and cognitive functioning. 260 non-treatment-seeking adults aged 18-29 years with varying degrees of gambling behavior provided saliva samples for genotyping COMT val158met (rs4680). All subjects underwent clinical evaluations and neurocognitive assessment of decision-making, working memory, and impulsivity. The Val/Val COMT genotype was associated with the largest percentage of subjects with gambling disorder (31.8%), a rate significantly different from the Val/Met (13.2%) group (p=0.001). The Val/Val COMT group was also associated with significantly more gambling disorder diagnostic criteria being met, greater frequency of gambling behavior, and significantly worse cognitive performance on the Cambridge Gamble Task (risk adjustment and delay aversion) and the Spatial Working Memory task (total errors). This study adds to the growing literature on the role of COMT in impulsive behaviors by showing that the Val/Val genotype was associated with specific clinical and cognitive elements among young adults who gamble, in the absence of differences on demographic measures and other cognitive domains. Future work should consider using genotyping to explore whether certain polymorphisms predict subsequent development of impulsive behaviors including gambling disorder, and treatment outcomes.
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Dustin Sarver et al.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Excess gross motor activity (hyperactivity) is considered a core diagnostic feature of childhood ADHD that impedes learning. This view has been challenged, however, by recent models that conceptualize excess motor activity as a compensatory mechanism that facilitates neurocognitive functioning in children with ADHD. The current study investigated competing model predictions regarding activity level’s relation with working memory (WM) performance and attention in boys aged 8–12 years (M = 9.64, SD = 1.26) with ADHD (n = 29) and typically developing children (TD; n = 23). Children’s phonological WM and attentive behavior were objectively assessed during four counterbalanced WM tasks administered across four separate sessions. These data were then sequenced hierarchically based on behavioral observations of each child’s gross motor activity during each task. Analysis of the relations among intra-individual changes in observed activity level, attention, and performance revealed that higher rates of activity level predicted significantly better, but not normalized WM performance for children with ADHD. Conversely, higher rates of activity level predicted somewhat lower WM performance for TD children. Variations in movement did not predict changes in attention for either group. At the individual level, children with ADHD and TD children were more likely to be classified as reliably Improved and Deteriorated, respectively, when comparing their WM performance at their highest versus lowest observed activity level. These findings appear most consistent with models ascribing a functional role to hyperactivity in ADHD, with implications for selecting behavioral treatment targets to avoid overcorrecting gross motor activity during academic tasks that rely on phonological WM.
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Joshua Weller et al.
Development and Psychopathology, May 2015, Pages 535-551
Abstract:
Childhood maltreatment has lasting negative effects throughout the life span. Early intervention research has demonstrated that these effects can be remediated through skill-based, family-centered interventions. However, less is known about plasticity during adolescence, and whether interventions are effective many years after children experience maltreatment. This study investigated this question by examining adolescent girls' ability to make advantageous decisions in the face of risk using a validated decision-making task; performance on this task has been associated with key neural regions involved in affective processing and executive functioning. Maltreated foster girls (n = 92), randomly assigned at age 11 to either an intervention designed to prevent risk-taking behaviors or services as usual (SAU), and nonmaltreated age and socioeconomic status matched girls living with their biological parent(s) (n = 80) completed a decision-making task (at age 15–17) that assessed risk taking and sensitivity to expected value, an index of advantageous decision making. Girls in the SAU condition demonstrated the greatest decision-making difficulties, primarily for risks to avoid losses. In the SAU group, frequency of neglect was related to greater difficulties in this area. Girls in the intervention condition with less neglect performed similarly to nonmaltreated peers. This research suggests that early maltreatment may impact decision-making abilities into adolescence and that enriched environments during early adolescence provide a window of plasticity that may ameliorate these negative effects.
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A Comparison of Two Models of Risky Sexual Behavior During Late Adolescence
Sopagna Eap Braje, Mark Eddy & Gordon Hall
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Two models of risky sexual behavior (RSB) were compared in a community sample of late adolescents (N = 223). For the traumagenic model, early negative sexual experiences were posited to lead to an association between negative affect with sexual relationships. For the cognitive escape model, depressive affect was posited to lead to engagement in RSB as a way to avoid negative emotions. The current study examined whether depression explained the relationship between sexual trauma and RSB, supporting the cognitive escape model, or whether it was sexual trauma that led specifically to RSB, supporting the traumagenic model. Physical trauma experiences were also examined to disentangle the effects of sexual trauma compared to other emotionally distressing events. The study examined whether the results would be moderated by participant sex. For males, support was found for the cognitive escape model but not the traumagenic model. Among males, physical trauma and depression predicted engagement in RSB but sexual trauma did not. For females, support was found for the traumagenic and cognitive escape model. Among females, depression and sexual trauma both uniquely predicted RSB. There was an additional suppressor effect of socioeconomic status in predicting RSB among females. Results suggest that the association of trauma type with RSB depends on participant sex. Implications of the current study for RSB prevention efforts are discussed.
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Jason Chow, Chin Ming Hui & Shun Lau
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent research has found that ego-depletion undermines self-control by motivating cognition that justifies conservation of mental resource. One potential cognitive mechanism is reduction of self-efficacy. Specifically, we propose that ego-depletion might demotivate self-control by making people believe that they are inefficacious in exerting self-control in subsequent tasks. Three experiments support the proposal. First, we demonstrated that (a) ego-depletion can reduce self-efficacy to exert further control (Experiments 1 to 3) and (b) the temporary reduction of self-efficacy mediates the effect of depletion on self-control performance (Experiment 2). Finally, we found that (c) these effects are only observed among participants who endorse a limited (versus non-limited) theory of willpower and are, hence, more motivated to conserve mental resources (Experiment 3). Taken together, the present findings show that decrease in self-efficacy to exert further self-control is an important cognitive process that explains how ego-depletion demotivates self-control. This research also contributes to the recent discussion of the psychological processes underlying ego-depletion.
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40-second green roof views sustain attention: The role of micro-breaks in attention restoration
Kate Lee et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, June 2015, Pages 182–189
Abstract:
Based on attention restoration theory we proposed that micro-breaks spent viewing a city scene with a flowering meadow green roof would boost sustained attention. Sustained attention is crucial in daily life and underlies successful cognitive functioning. We compared the effects of 40-second views of two different city scenes on 150 university students’ sustained attention. Participants completed the task at baseline, were randomly assigned to view a flowering meadow green roof or a bare concrete roof, and completed the task again at post-treatment. Participants who briefly viewed the green roof made significantly lower omission errors, and showed more consistent responding to the task compared to participants who viewed the concrete roof. We argue that this reflects boosts to sub-cortical arousal and cortical attention control. Our results extend attention restoration theory by providing direct experimental evidence for the benefits of micro-breaks and for city green roofs.
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Phil Reed et al.
Computers in Human Behavior, August 2015, Pages 512–516
Abstract:
The current study explored the impact of internet exposure on the impulsivity of individuals who reported higher or lower levels of problematic internet behaviours. Levels of problematic internet use in 60 individuals were measured using the Internet Addiction Test. Participants were exposed to a choice assessment, in which they could choose between a small immediately-delivered outcome (impulsive), a medium-sized outcome with a medium delay (optimal), and a larger longer-delayed outcome (self-controlled). They were given 15 min access to the internet, and finally were presented with the choice test again. Of the sample, 28% (17/60) had internet-problems, with no difference being found between male and female rates of problematic internet use. Those reporting higher levels of internet-problems displayed no greater impulsive behaviours, prior to internet exposure, than those reporting fewer problems. After internet exposure, higher-problem users displayed greater impulsivity, reflected by a move from self-controlled to impulsive choices. These findings suggest that individuals reporting internet-related problems become more impulsive after exposure to the internet.
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Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Online Risk Taking: The Role of Gist and Verbatim Representations
Claire White, Michaela Gummerum & Yaniv Hanoch
Risk Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
Young people are exposed to and engage in online risky activities, such as disclosing personal information and making unknown friends online. Little research has examined the psychological mechanisms underlying young people's online risk taking. Drawing on fuzzy trace theory, we examined developmental differences in adolescents’ and young adults’ online risk taking and assessed whether differential reliance on gist representations (based on vague, intuitive knowledge) or verbatim representations (based on specific, factual knowledge) could explain online risk taking. One hundred and twenty two adolescents (ages 13–17) and 172 young adults (ages 18–24) were asked about their past online risk-taking behavior, intentions to engage in future risky online behavior, and gist and verbatim representations. Adolescents had significantly higher intentions to take online risks than young adults. Past risky online behaviors were positively associated with future intentions to take online risks for adolescents and negatively for young adults. Gist representations about risk negatively correlated with intentions to take risks online in both age groups, while verbatim representations positively correlated with online risk intentions, particularly among adolescents. Our results provide novel insights about the underlying mechanisms involved in adolescent and young adults’ online risk taking, suggesting the need to tailor the representation of online risk information to different age groups.