On Goals and Temptations

You're at a restaurant looking over the dessert menu. What does it take to pass and pay your check rather than indulge? Willpower? Self denial? Or maybe your brain just needs a subtle reminder of some other rewards, such as the reward of reaching a goal of losing 5 pounds or the pleasure of feeling fit enough to join your friends on a long mountain hike? The shift in framing the choice is subtle, but powerful: rather than wanting versus denial, it's wanting versus other wanting.

This week, at the annual meeting of (wait for it) the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, a Dutch social psychologist named Esther Papies presented the results of three studies in which people prompted by subtle "goal reminders" focused on diet and fitness at restaurants and grocery stores and restaurants made healthier choices than customers who encountered no such cues. In one field study, for example, the researchers set up shop at a local butcher on alternate days when a placard offering a low-calorie recipe was, or was not, displayed by the counter. Also on the counter, every day, was a tray of tempting "bite-sized meat snacks." One of the researchers surreptitiously observed how many snacks customers ate and another later asked each customer to fill out a quick survey indicating, among other things, whether they were trying to lose weight or get in shape. On days when the recipe poster was displayed, people with diet and fitness goals ate fewer snacks. You can read the particulars here.