14 DAY TRIAL // People who want to resist temptation and increase their willpower, need to strain their muscles every time they fell that they are losing their will, suggests a new research published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
But the authors warn that muscles are not enough and that people need to be self consciousness and have a precise goal in mind when attempting the experiment.
Iris W. Hung from the National University of Singapore, and Aparna A. Labroo from the University of Chicago, put study participants through several of self-control situations, who were all based on accepting immediate pain for following a long-term goal.
For the first of the four experiments, participants had to drink a healthy vinegar drink that tasted horribly, and in another study, they had to hold their hands in a bucket filled with ice for as long as they could, in order to prove their resistance.
Also, a third experiment involved the decision of looking at disturbing images of injured kids after the earthquake in Haiti and donate money for help and the last one was resisting unhealthy food in a local cafeteria.
Even though the tests were very different, “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 authors.
However, the positive results of muscle tightening appeared only if the choice of the participant was related to his/her belief and/or goal, like for example eating healthy food in order to have a healthy life.
Also, participants had to have a self-control dilemma in order for the experiment to work, and they had to tighten their muscles at the moment they felt they were undecided.
The authors write that there is a strong connection between the mind and the body so this is why “merely clenching muscles can also activate willpower.”