Thread by @DavidPerrott_

This is one of those papers I keep going back to.

(Especially when thinking about self-applied behavioural science)

'Beyond Willpower' by @angeladuckw , @katy_milkman and #DavidLaibson

Here are my favourite notes and quotes (Thread)👇

Timeless insight into why self-control is so tricky:

"Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion." ~ Alexander Hamilton (1802)

Useful to remember that inquiry on the topic stretches back 1000's of years.

There has been significant growth in academic attention to self-control over the past two decades.

Why the recent interest in the subject of self-control?

~ Persistence of self-control failures even when known
~ People incorrectly predict their ability to solve SCF's
~ The pervasiveness of temptations in the modern world

Self-control failures (SCF's) arise from a tension between a 'SHOULD' and a 'WANT':

Should behaviour (exercising, eating healthy, going to bed early) - more valuable in the long-run.

Want behaviour (staying on the couch, staying up late) is more alluring in the moment.

Self-control Success Vs Self-control Failure:

"When people pursue the option with more enduring value, they experience self-control success; when they pursue the option that is more tempting right now, they experience self-control failure."

'Three classes of models in economics and psychological science endeavour to explain when and why self-control conflicts arise':

1) Multiple sequential selves with inconsistent preferences
2) Multiple coexisting selves
3) multiple-attribute choices

"Self-control conflicts are an everyday challenge, and people’s failures to act in their long-term interest are
commonplace."

Why?

"Succeeding at self-control requires people to do MORE THAN DECIDE to forego what they want in order to do what they should."

A theoretical framework for organizing the myriad strategies that have been shown empirically to reduce self-control failures:

Framework neatly discerns four useful features of behaviourally-informed interventions:

1) Situational strategies OR
2) Cognitive strategies

&

3) Self-deployed Strategies OR
4) Other-deployed control strategies

Types of self-deployed situational interventions:

- Commitment Devices
- Temptation Bundling
- Situation Modification
- Behavior Therapy

Types of self-deployed cognitive interventions:

- Goals
- Mental Contrasting
- Implementation Planning
- If-then Planning Prompts
- Self-monitoring
- Psychological Distancing
- Mindfulness
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Types of other-deployed cognitive interventions:

- Descriptive Social Norms
- Social Labeling
- Making the Future Self-relatable
- Joint Evaluation
- Fresh-start Framing
- Licensing Prevention

Types of other-deployed situational interventions:

- Hard Paternalism
- Microenvironments
- Defaults
- Active Choice
- Enhanced Active Choice
- Choosing in Advance
- Planned Interruptions

Strategy selection tradeoffs:

Self-deployed:
Put a greater “burden” on the individual but, once mastered, can, in theory, be applied across domains.

Other-deployed:
Easier to carry out but do not build the capacity of individuals to exercise self-control (or self-knowledge).

An important lesson to remember when prioritising interventions:

"Optimal strategies depend not only on their likelihood of success but also on their ease of execution."

The review of the self-control literature revealed five key areas in which more research is needed:

1) Direct comparability
2) Complementary and substitution effects
3) Gist thinking, personal rules and habits
4) Executive function activation
5) General intervention robustness

Read the full paper here: bit.ly/37vSsNV