Some Canadian researchers have gained insight into the nature of self control, and I find their conclusions fascinating. In a nutshell what they have found is that as humans, our capacity for self control is limited and shallow.

These researchers concocted an experiment where they made the subjects watch animal snuff movies, and one group was told to control their expressions and emotions, and another group was not directed in any way. Afterwards they were given a rapid colour matching test that requires a controlled response. What these researchers found is that the group that were told to suppress their emotions did poorly on the test, compared to those who simply watched the movie.

Apparently though, self control is like a muscle, and we can be trained to get more of it. Just like running a marathon might make it hard for you to walk right after it, it will have a positive effect on your overall endurance.

The interesting thing about this study implies about consumerism and addiction. In the case of consumerism, it suggests that marketers should work harder to test the limits of self control, and put people in a state of "self-control fatigue", as such people will be more prone to impulse buys. This then means that we can expect even more tests of our self control to happen as marketers use this to their advantage. The question then becomes: will we become stronger from a constant overload of self-control tests, or weaker? Sure a runner who runs every day will become stronger. But how about a runner who is forced to run all day, every day?

In the case of addiction this has all kinds of interesting implications. It means that one can work on the general case of self control through simple, measurable exercises, and then use that to apply to the task of overcoming ones object of weakness. This seems like a much stronger, and much more sustainable policy of dealing with addition, rather then through some kind of zero-tolerance style.

Finally, if self control is workable like a muscle, it means that if you work on it daily, you can increase your leel of self control. This of course, takes self control! It's a win-win proposition. Maybe in the future, I'll bblog about tools I have found that help one in such a venture.

(Source: The Futurist)