The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: WHAT’S TERRIFYING YOU?
This week, pay attention to what might be triggering terror management in your own mind. What
do you hear or see in the media or online? What new flesh-eating bacteria is going to infect you
at your local playground? Where are the killer bees coming from this time? What building
exploded, where was the fatal car crash, and who was found dead in their home? (For extra
credit, check out what products are advertised in between or alongside the fright tactics. Do they
have anything to do with your willpower challenges?) Are there any other scare tactics or
warnings you’re exposed to that might be triggering cravings for comfort?
Sometimes terror management leads us not into temptation, but procrastination. Many of the
most put-off tasks have a whiff of mortality salience about them: making a doctor’s appointment,
filling a prescription and taking it when we’re supposed to, taking care of legal documents such
as wills, saving for retirement, even throwing out things we’re never going to use again, or
clothes we’ll never fit into. If there’s something you’ve been putting off or keep “forgetting” to
do, is it possible that you are trying to avoid facing your vulnerability? If so, just seeing the fear
can help you make a rational choice—the motivations we understand are always easier to
change than the influences we cannot see.

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A LATE-NIGHT SNACKER GOES ON A TV DIET
Valerie had the living room television on for an hour or two most evenings, as background for
cleaning up or whatever needed to be organized for her kids’ activities the next day. She usually kept
it set to a news channel that specialized in missing people, unsolved mysteries, and true crime. The
stories were fascinating, and even though she sometimes wished that she hadn’t seen a particular
crime photo, she couldn’t look away. When we talked about terror-management theory in class, it was
the first time she’d really thought about the effects of listening to so many horrifying stories day in and
day out. She started to wonder if her evening cravings for salty and sweet snacks (one of her
willpower challenges) had something to do with the tales of kidnapped girls and murdered wives.
Valerie started to pay attention to how she felt during the news stories, especially the tragedies
involving children. In class the next week, she reported, “It’s awful. I feel a pit in my stomach, but it’s
like I have to keep watching. It feels urgent, but it has nothing to do with me. I don’t know why I do
this to myself.” She decided to turn the channel-of-doom off and find something less stressful to put on
in the background—music, pod-casts, or sitcom reruns. Within a week, she felt as if a dark cloud had
lifted off of her mood at the end of the evening. Better yet, when she switched from terror-tainment to
more uplifting media, she didn’t find herself finishing a whole bag of trail mix that was supposed to
be for school lunches.
Take a twenty-four-hour break from TV news, talk radio, magazines, or websites that profit
from your fear. If the world doesn’t end without you watching every private and global crisis
unfold (prediction: It won’t), consider cutting out mindless consumption of these media.

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