Neuroscience
We’re all familiar with the little voice in our head that tells us not to be naughty. A 2010 study by researchers at the Toronto Laboratory for Social Neuroscience claimed to show this voice really does play a useful role in self-control. Alexa Tullett’s team instructed participants to say the word ‘computer’ repeatedly with their inner voice thereby preventing it from uttering encouraging words of restraint. Doing this compromised the participants’ performance at a concurrent lab test of self-control (the Go/No Go task, which involves withholding key responses on a minority of trials) far more than did a secondary task that merely involved drawing circles. The researchers concluded: ‘[T]his study provides evidence that when we tell ourselves to "keep going" on the treadmill, or when we count to ten during an argument, we may be helping ourselves to successfully overcome our impulses in favour of goals like keeping fit, and preserving a relationship.' [further information]
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This post is part of the Research Digest's Sin Week. Each day for Seven days we'll be posting a confession, a new sin and a way to be good. The festivities coincide with the publication of a feature-length article on the psychology behind the Seven Deadly Sins in this month's Psychologist magazine.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Willpower is like a muscle – the more you train it, the more powerful it will become, thus helping you to resist the Seven Deadly Sins. For example, in a study published last year, Mark Muraven at the University of Albany had a subset of participants...
- Seven New Deadly Sins: 3) Narcissistic Myopia
Tim Kasser at Knox College, Illinois, says Narcissistic Myopia is the tendency to be short-sighted and self-centred, ‘taking whatever one wants now and forgetting that future generations of humans rely on the current generation to leave them a habitable...
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Neuroscience
Seven ways to be good: 3) Use your inner voice
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This post is part of the Research Digest's Sin Week. Each day for Seven days we'll be posting a confession, a new sin and a way to be good. The festivities coincide with the publication of a feature-length article on the psychology behind the Seven Deadly Sins in this month's Psychologist magazine.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Seven New Deadly Sins: 7) Insert Your Sin Here
Our panel of psychologists suggested Truthiness, Iphonophilia, Narcissistic Myopia, Entitlement, Mobile Abuse, and Excessive Debt as new Deadly Sins relevant to the 21st century. What do you think of these and what new sins do you propose? Celebrity worship?...
- Seven New Deadly Sins: 5) Mobile Abuse
Mobile abuse: ‘Shouting into your cell phone on the bus, or as the curtain is going up at the opera – that happened to me,’ says Helen Fisher at Rutgers University. ‘I mean where are these people coming from, where is their brain? It is extreme...
- Seven Ways To Be Good: 4) Practise Self-control
Willpower is like a muscle – the more you train it, the more powerful it will become, thus helping you to resist the Seven Deadly Sins. For example, in a study published last year, Mark Muraven at the University of Albany had a subset of participants...
- Seven New Deadly Sins: 3) Narcissistic Myopia
Tim Kasser at Knox College, Illinois, says Narcissistic Myopia is the tendency to be short-sighted and self-centred, ‘taking whatever one wants now and forgetting that future generations of humans rely on the current generation to leave them a habitable...
- Seven New Deadly Sins: 2) Iphonophilia
Iphonophilia: ‘The sin of constantly checking one's smartphone for e- mails/texts/facebook updates, while in conversation with people in the real world,’ says Jessica Tracy at the University of British Columbia. ‘I'm a big fan of these high-tech...