Finding a Life Manual

How to Resist Temptations

She placed three groups of people in a room containing a delicious-looking chocolate cake and the implements to divide and eat it.

The first group was put into the room and told to think about the shame and guilt they would feel if they ate it.

The second was told to think about how proud they would be ofnoteating it.

The third group, the control group, was put in the room and given no instructions.

Here were the results:

The control group ate the most.

The group that was told to think about pride ate the least.

MacInnis concluded that shame and guilt do not work as well as a sense of pride to help resist temptation.

I believe I know why: Shame and guilt consume energy, subtracting energy from our will to resist temptation. Pride, on the other hand, gives energy, allocating more energy to the willpower to resist.