In Greek mythology, the story of Odysseus and the Sirens illustrates a paradigmatic example of self-control. Jordan Bridges, a doctoral student in the Rutgers Department of Philosophy, has co-authored a paper in the journal Cognition explaining why this distinction matters for the study of self-control, and what it might tell us about how mere mortals view the power of willpower. Researchers have long wondered what tools people successfully use to resist temptations like eating another bag of potato chips or checking Facebook one more time before bed.
While no one really knows why some of us have more self-control than others, psychologists and behavioral economists know a lot about the methods people use to resist temptation. 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.
But Bridges and her colleagues hypothesised 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 theorised that it takes willpower to implement temptation-avoidance strategies," said Bridges.
"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,” she added.