How to choose healthier food, save more for retirement and do more exercise.
People who feel busy have more self-control because it leads to a sense of self-importance, which dictates better lifestyle choices.
Busy people often choose healthier food, save more for retirement and do more exercise, experiments demonstrate.
Professor Amitava Chattopadhyay, study co-author, said:
“Every day, we make many decisions that involve choosing between our immediate and future well-being.
For instance, do we go to the gym after work, or do we just go home to relax in front of the television?
Do we save money for retirement, or do we splurge on a trip? Do we eat fruit or cake for dessert?
When we perceive ourselves to be busy, it boosts our self-esteem, tipping the balance in favour of the more virtuous choice.”
The study tested the idea of having a ‘busy mindset’ or, feeling busy.
The results showed that people who were reminded that they were busy tended to make more virtuous decisions.
Feeling busy makes people feel more important, Professor Chattopadhyay said:
“When we temporarily dampened the sense of self-importance of participants who otherwise felt busy, the self-control effect vanished.”
Related
The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research (Kim et al., 2018).
