How to Resist Temptation: Practice!

Dieters are faced with challenges all the time – ads in the paper or on TV, a full buffet table, an insistant hostess. Scientists are trying to clarify exactly what behavior can strengthen the will to resist such temptations. One of their findings may prove valuable is reported in the Journal of Consumer Research.

In an earlier study, Dutch researchers had demonstrated that two consecutive self-regulatory decisions in a consumer setting, self–regulation is easier the second time around. But the conditions (environment, temptation, actionable response or not) must be the same for this ‘reinforcement’ to occur. Thus when a friend offers a cookie, refusal will make it easier to refuse a cookie under similar circumstances. But it won’t affect your likelihood to look at an ad for chocolate and buy (or not buy) a bar later.

Three further experiments confirm the findings from the first study. Taken together, the results show that although resistance to temptation wears out when one is confronted with a series of different temptations, resistance gets a boost when one has just been exposed to a similar temptation (and resisted it!). The answer, therefore, seems to be to expose yourself to a variety of likely temptations, and follow up with repeat exposure to each; it’s a bit like immunization, which is also pretty specific.