Unable to quit smoking due to lack of willpower? Well, new research suggests that firming muscles can shore up self-control.
Iris W Hung from the National University of Singapore and Aparna A Labroo from the University of Chicago studied participants from a range of self-control dilemmas that involved accepting immediate pain for long-term gain.
In one study, participants submerged their hands in an ice bucket to demonstrate pain resistance whereas in another participants consumed a healthy but awful-tasting vinegar drink.
In the third experiment, participants decided whether to look at disturbing information about injured children devastated by an earthquake in Haiti and donate money to help. Finally, researchers observed actual food choices people made as they shopped for lunch at a local cafeteria.
"Participants who were instructed to tighten their muscles, regardless of which muscles they tightened — hand, finger, calf, or biceps — while trying to exert self-control demonstrated greater ability to withstand the pain, consume the unpleasant medicine, attend to the immediately disturbing but essential information, or overcome tempting foods," said the researchers.
The researchers found that the muscle tightening only helped when the choice aligned with the participants' goals (for example, to have a healthier lifestyle), and also that the tightening of muscles only helped at the moment people faced the self-control dilemma.
"The mind and the body are so closely tied together that clenching muscles could also activate willpower. Thus, simply engaging in these bodily actions, which often result from an exertion of willpower, could serve as a non-conscious source to recruit willpower, facilitate self-control, and improve consumer well-being," they concluded.
The research was published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
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