|
WHEN TOMORROW LICENSES TODAY
Whether it’s patting ourselves on the back for making progress, or remembering how we resisted
temptation yesterday, we are quick to give ourselves credit for past good behavior. But the fuzzy math
of moral licensing doesn’t limit us to taking only past actions into account. We just as easily look into
the future, and credit ourselves with our planned virtuous behavior. For example, people who merely
intend
to exercise later are more likely to overeat at dinner. This habit allows us to sin today, and
make up for it later—or so we tell ourselves.
DON’T COUNT YOUR GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD BEFORE IT’SHATCHED
Imagine this: It’s lunchtime, you’re in a rush, and the most convenient place to pick something up is a
fast-food restaurant. You’re trying to watch your weight and improve your health, so your plan is to
avoid the most fattening foods on the menu. When you get in line, you’re delighted to see that along
with the usual indulgent fare, the restaurant is offering a new line of salads. This restaurant is close to
your office, so you come here more often than has probably been good for your waistline. You’re
thrilled that you’ll now have options you won’t have to feel guilty about. You stand in line,
considering your choices, weighing a garden salad against a grilled chicken salad. Then, when you’re
finally in front of the register, you hear the words “double cheeseburger and fries” coming out of your
mouth.
What just happened?
It might seem like old habits kicked in, or maybe the aroma of french fries overpowered your good
intentions. But would you believe that the healthy items on the menu actually made you more likely to
order the cheeseburger and fries?
This is the conclusion of several studies by marketing researchers at Baruch College, City
University of New York. The researchers were intrigued by reports that when McDonald’s added
healthier items to its menu, sales of Big Macs skyrocketed. To find out why, the researchers designed
their own fast-food menus and set up a mock restaurant. Diners were given a menu and asked to select
one item. All the menus had a range of standard fast-food fare, such as french fries, chicken nuggets,
and a baked potato with fixings. Half the participants were given a special menu that also included a
healthy salad. When the salad was an option, the percentage of participants choosing the
least healthy
and most fattening item on the menu increased. The researchers found the same effect for vending
machine choices. When a reduced-calorie package of cookies was added to a set of standard junk-
food options, participants were
more
likely to choose the least healthy snack (which, in this case,
happened to be chocolate-covered Oreos).
How can this be? Sometimes the mind gets so excited about the
opportunity
to act on a goal, it
mistakes that opportunity with the satisfaction of having actually accomplished the goal. And with the
goal to make a healthy choice out of the way, the unmet goal—immediate pleasure—takes priority.
You feel less pressure to actually order the healthy item, and you feel a stronger desire for the
indulgent item. Add this up, and although it makes no rational sense, you give yourself permission to
order the most artery-clogging, waist-expanding, and life-span-shortening thing on the menu. These
studies call into question the public health push to offer at least one healthy choice in school
cafeterias, vending machines, and chain restaurants. Unless the change is widespread, and all of the
offerings are made healthier, there is a risk that people will end up making even worse choices than if
nothing had been done.
Maybe you think you wouldn’t be susceptible to this effect—surely you have more self-control than
the suckers in these studies! If so, then you’re really in trouble. The participants who rated themselves
as having the best self-control, especially around food, were the most likely to end up ordering the
least healthy item when a healthy choice was available. While only 10 percent of these self-identified
willpower wonders chose the least healthy item when the menu did not include a salad, 50 percent
chose the least healthy item when the salad was an option. Perhaps they were so confident that they
would order the healthy item in the future, they felt comfortable ordering the french fries today.
This illustrates a fundamental mistake we make when thinking about our future choices. We
wrongly but persistently expect to make different decisions tomorrow than we do today. I’ll smoke
this one cigarette, but starting tomorrow, I’m done. I’ll skip the gym today, but I’m sure I’ll go
tomorrow. I’ll splurge on holiday gifts, but then no more shopping for at least three months.
Such optimism licenses us to indulge today—especially if we know we will have the opportunity
to choose differently in the near future. For example, researchers at Yale University gave students the
choice between a fat-free yogurt and a large Mrs. Fields cookie. When the students were told they
would have the same options the following week, 83 percent chose the cookie, compared with only
57 percent of students who thought the snacks were a one-time opportunity. Students showed the same
pattern when the choice was between lowbrow and highbrow entertainment (“I can be educated and
enlightened next week”), and between an immediate, smaller financial reward and a larger, delayed
financial reward (“I need the cash now, but next week I’ll wait for the bigger payoff ”).
In fact, 67 percent of students who were told they’d have the same choice the following week
predicted that they would choose the more virtuous option. But when the experimenters actually
brought them back to the lab for a second choice, only 36 percent made a different choice.
Nevertheless, they felt much less guilt over that initial indulgent choice when they thought they could
make up for it later.
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: ARE YOU BORROWING CREDIT
FROM TOMORROW?
As you go about making decisions related to your willpower challenge, notice if the promise of
future good behavior comes up in your thinking. Do you tell yourself you will make up for
today’s behavior tomorrow? What effect does this have on your self-control today? For extra
credit, keep paying attention—all the way to tomorrow. Do you actually do what you said you
would, or does the cycle of “indulge today, change tomorrow” begin again?
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
