from the using-synchronic-regulation-to-avoid-writing-inane-department-line dept.
In Greek mythology, the story of Odysseus and the Sirens illustrates a paradigmatic example of self-control.
When the hero of Homer's epic prepared to travel past the Sirens, mythical creatures who lure sailors with their enchanted singing, Odysseus instructs his crew to plug their ears with wax and tie him to the ship's mast. That way, Odysseus can listen to the Sirens as he sails by, and the crew can keep their wits. No matter how much he begs to be released, no one will hear his pleas.
Was Odysseus exercising willpower with his plan, or was he merely removing his ability to cave to temptation?
Researchers have long wondered what tools people successfully use to resist temptations [...]
Bridges said one method is called diachronic regulation, which involves selecting and modifying one's situation and cultivating habits over time to avoid temptation – essentially removing willpower from the equation. A second approach, synchronic regulation, relies on deliberate, effortful willpower in the moment to resist temptation.
Psychologists and economists have increasingly argued that because willpower is difficult to exercise, diachronic regulation is more effective than synchronic regulation. This conclusion is based in part on the failure of willpower-driven campaigns (such as Nancy Regan's "Just Say No" campaign, which had no measurable effects on youth tobacco, alcohol or drug use).
But Bridges and her colleagues hypothesized that such assessments of synchronic regulation rested on a faulty interpretation of the data, that supposed examples of effective purely diachronic strategies involved the use of willpower to implement, and that the popular, or "folk," view of willpower is just as important.
"We theorized that it takes willpower to implement temptation-avoidance strategies," said Bridges.
[...] She added: "People often infer that it's the diachronic strategy doing the self-control work, when really, moments of synchronic regulation are being amplified with diachronic strategy. Understanding the role of willpower in self-control has implications for the way we talk about helping people break habits."
It takes willpower to develop willpower.
Journal Reference:
Zachary C. Irving, Jordan Bridges, Aaron Glasser, et al., Will-powered: Synchronic regulation is the difference maker for self-control, Cognition, 225, 2022. 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105154
(Score: 3, Touché) by pkrasimirov on Monday August 15 2022, @07:51AM (4 children)
> It takes willpower to develop willpower.
New signature invented.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @11:57AM (1 child)
> It takes willpower to develop willpower.
Possibly also age. Seems like I'm a lot less inclined to temptation as I've gotten older.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @12:29PM
I am the opposite. The older I am the more I grow to be tempted. Perhaps because I am now wealthy enough to do so. Sadly, the entertainments of my youth are no longer available or desirable but there are other distractions. Maybe I will find out in a few years if retirement suits me. Will I be bored? Will I go out of control doing everything I can? How do people just sit in a room and watch the years pass? So many books to read. As it is Discord has me enthralled. I am working my way out of it. Very compelling. Hard to stop.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @03:00PM (1 child)
Tbh it's kind of dumb.
Willpower is basically yelling at yourself. That means in your head you carry around a douchebag rent-free to yell at you, probably modeled on some premier tier douche clown that did a TED talk about The 10 Secret Habits Of Winners(tm). And of course it's bullshit, but you're a believer and probably yell at those you perceive as losers, because they are not following your 10 Acts of Discipline that take you to The Higher Place or praying 5 times a day in the direction of Tony Robbins' mansion.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday August 16 2022, @03:20PM
So you're saying it's a skill that takes practice and you've got time for neither!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Dr Spin on Monday August 15 2022, @08:58AM (3 children)
My brother said "Its not will power I lack, its won't power".
Dad's strategy was to switch to expensive Cuban cigars, then to cheap Cuban cigars, and then to horrible, cheap French cigars.
Then he found giving up was quite easy.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @12:11PM (1 child)
I did the same with beer. Premium bottled for a while. Then Premium on tap. Then larger and cheaper beer on tap. Finally bottled beer at the lower range. Now I hardly ever drink beer. Maybe if I go out for lunch at a pub. Otherwise, no. Problem solved.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @08:19PM
I did the same but it didn't work out so well. Beer, cheap sherry, liquor, grain alcohol, gasoline, turps. Now I can only afford glue.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aafcac on Monday August 15 2022, @02:05PM
I can't remember the book it was from, but you can largely divide that up into will power, want power and won't power. As in I'm going to do this thing I need to do, but don't want to. Or I won't do that thing that I shouldn't be doing. Or I want that enough to put up with BS to get it. It seems a pretty reasonable way of looking at it.
Personally, I do think there is some benefit to having something out and not having it, but it's far harder to quit it than it would be simply hiding it, and the related cues, as well as just making it inconvenient. It's hard to smoke a cigarette that isn't within reach and it's nearly impossible to eat a big mac if you aren't at McDonalds.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Monday August 15 2022, @12:10PM (2 children)
https://psyarxiv.com/vw5as/ [psyarxiv.com]
compiling...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @12:26PM
Download link from that page: https://psyarxiv.com/vw5as/download [psyarxiv.com]
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Monday August 15 2022, @03:41PM
Here and now I had just learned the term Sirens (non-native speaking).
And by coincidence, just after this soylent article in my RSS feed I found the new Bad Space comic:
https://www.badspacecomics.com/post/siren-waters [badspacecomics.com]
(Score: 2) by Flyingmoose on Monday August 15 2022, @04:38PM (4 children)
Did it ever occur to these researchers that “Just Say No” didn’t work because kids thought it was fucking stupid? If the researchers are this out of touch, I can’t trust anything else they say.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @05:46PM (1 child)
Maybe abstinence will be a winner? Or maybe it's not about abstinence or drugs at all, but making YOU do stupid shit because THEY say so.
(Score: 1) by aafcac on Sunday August 21 2022, @07:44PM
Abstinence does work, the problem though is that it's not a good solution and usually doesn't account for how the brain works. If you're working on the riefer madness type of reasoning, it seems to make sense, but you don't normally go from being in a good position to having a massive problems just because you did whatever it is once. Sure, one time is all it takes to become pregnant, but it's usually the second time and beyond that are the real problem in most of these cases and not everybody is equally likely to go beyond the first. I had a coworker that tried heroine once, and then never again because he recognized that that first time was the best it was ever likely to be. Every other time would be just chasing the dragon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @09:18PM
> “Just Say No”
We (friends and I) turned this into humor, making up variations on: “Just Say No” to X
“Just Say No to Reagan" was certainly one version. Maybe these were the memes of the day, spread by oral tradition?
(Score: 1) by aafcac on Sunday August 21 2022, @07:39PM
I see people saying that and it's simply not true. If that were true, then it would be a broader cross section of kids ignoring the advice. Instead, it's the same sorts of people that are always susceptible to drugs. People lacking a proper social support system, people with untreated medical or mental health issues and those that are otherwise not on track to a more productive life. It's virtually impossible for somebody to quit drugs if they're surrounded by people who are using. It's not just giving up the substance itself, it's also giving up your entire social circle and possibly not even being accepted into any others.
Tomorrow will be my 20th year sober and it was incredibly tough. I lost just about every friend I thought I had when I stopped drinking, even though I wasn't the sort to be hanging out in bars. I think I got a sort of hesitant approval from like 2 people I knew outside of my family. And it made things incredibly tough as I had no social safety net to rely on when the cravings hit and since I was going it alone, I didn't know that you can feel fine for weeks or possibly even years before you hit a stretch were you'd do just about anything to use and it takes all the strength in the world to keep your head out of the bottle.
These days I'm fine, it's been several years since I had any urge to drink, but I stick to beverages that are under .5% alcohol and avoid them completely during certain times of the year. But, I didn't get to that point until I realized that I was drinking because I wasn't happy with the state of my social connections. In a lot of cases the trick to quitting is to stop using for longer and longer periods of time and recognize that setbacks are inevitable. Clean yourself up as much as possible and find places where you can meet new people for short periods of time, however long you can reliably go without starting to show signs of withdrawal. See a doctor to make sure that whatever it is you're coming off of doesn't need medicine to reduce the risk of complications. I know of at least one man that's probably still in a coma as a result of going cold turkey after having spent years washing his bipolar medication down with liquor. Knowing if it's going to be unpleasant or possibly life threatening is very important to any treatment plan. Something that's just unpleasant like smoking, you probably can get away with just locking yourself indoors whenever you're having trouble, but with something like alcohol that could potentially lead to serious complications.