The Daily Telegraph

Don’t despair over your lack of willpower: temptation is good

- By Sarah Knapton

A LACK of willpower may seem frustratin­g, but it is crucial to human evolution, scientists believe, proving people should not despair too much about their slip-ups.

Dr Ian Taylor, a psychologi­st and expert in human motivation from Lough- borough University, claims that a breech of willpower allowed for our ancestors to explore unchartere­d avenues, and seek out new experience­s.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Dr Taylor, said: “Willpower can be thought of as the ability to override, to resist the temptation in favour of valued goals.

“Most people think that willpower is amazing. But you don’t want to rely on it. If you are relying on willpower then there is going to be problems.

“When you need to use willpower it doesn’t feel very nice. It’s fragile, it will break. Evolutiona­ry speaking, it is good for it to break. When willpower breaks you explore different things, so our ancestors wouldn’t want to keep using the same habitats, using the same food stores, using the same mates.

“It’s good to be tempted to explore and seek new habitats and be tempted by new mates, evolutiona­ry speaking.” Instead, Dr Taylor argued that to resist temptation, people should not focus on the thing they were trying to avoid, but rather identify with the person they are hoping to become.

A person on a diet should not think of themselves as a “dieter” but rather a healthy eater to be successful, while a person struggling to make it to the gym should think of themselves as an “exerciser” rather than someone needing to get in shape.

“Nobody wants to be associated with a negative identity,” he added. “If you are trying to do something you can describe it to yourself as trying to trigger a positive identity.

“So rather than doing exercise, think of it as being an exerciser. Rather than having to go on a diet, be a healthy eater, and that triggers more identityba­sed processes.”

Similar psychologi­cal motivation was proved in a 2008 California­n election when the electorate was sent a survey asking them either “how important is being a voter?” or “how important is voting?”

It was found that 95 per cent primed by the “voter” survey eventually voted, compared to just 75 per cent of the “voting” group.

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