This research, conducted by psychological scientists Catherine Shea, Gr\u00e1inne Fitzsimons, and Erin Davisson of Duke University, is published in Psychological Science<\/em>, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know how much effort it takes to overcome temptation,\u201d says Shea, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in Fitzsimons\u2019s lab. \u201cPeople with low self-control could relieve a lot of their self-control struggles by being with an individual who helps them<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n To test this prediction, Shea and her colleagues conducted two lab-based studies and one study with real-life romantic partners.<\/p>\n In the first study, participants were asked to watch a video. The researchers experimentally manipulated participants\u2019 self-control by asking one group to avoid reading words that flashed up on the screen during the video (depleting their self-control), while giving no such instructions to the other group.<\/p>\n Each participant then read a vignette about one of three office managers \u2014 one who demonstrated low self-control behavior, one who demonstrated high self-control behavior, and one who demonstrated both high and low self-control behaviors. The participants rated the office managers on their leadership abilities.<\/p>\n The results were clear: When people were temporarily depleted of their self-control, they rated the manager who had high self-control more positively than the two other managers<\/strong>. That is, these participants seemed to compensate for the self-control they lacked by valuing it in others.<\/p>\n A second study confirmed these results: People who demonstrated low trait self-control on a standard self-control task also showed a preference for the manager with high self-control.<\/p>\n In the third study, the researchers tested their hypothesis using survey data from 136 romantic couples.<\/p>\n Again, the data confirmed the hypothesis: Individuals who reported having low-self control also reported greater dependence on their partner if the partner happened to have high self-control.<\/p>\n These results show that the phenomenon isn\u2019t just lab-based, it also extends to real-world relationships<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cSelf-control, by its name and definition, is a \u2018self\u2019 process \u2014 something that we do alone, as individuals,\u201d observes Shea. \u201cYet, when we order food on a menu or go to work, we\u2019re often surrounded by other people.\u201d<\/p>\n The findings are particularly interesting because previous research has typically focused on the downsides of low self-control, such as poorer academic achievement and health outcomes. But this new research suggests that individuals who lack self-control may actually have a unique skill: the ability to pick up on self-control cues in others and use those cues to form adaptive relationships.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have shown is that low self-control individuals seem to implicitly surround themselves with individuals who can help them overcome temptation \u2014 you get by with a little help from your friends<\/strong>,\u201d says Shea.<\/p>\n This research was supported in part by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Association for Psychological Science press release: We all desire self-control \u2014 the resolve to skip happy hour and go to the gym instead, to finish a report before… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[12,276],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12214"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12299,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions\/12299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rorschach](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Rorschach-Test.jpg\")
<\/a>We all desire self-control \u2014 the resolve to skip happy hour and go to the gym instead, to finish a report before checking Facebook, to say no to the last piece of chocolate cake. Though many struggle to resist those temptations, new research suggests that people with low self-control prefer and depend on people with high self-control<\/strong>, possibly as a way to make up for the skills they themselves lack.<\/p>\n