Situational Self-Control

Situational Self-Control

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

The view that features of the setting, such as what is in view, shape how long people can hold off.

What it is

Wendy Wood, in Good Habits, Bad Habits, reports that children in the original waiting experiments waited about four minutes longer with the treat hidden than in view, and that children who managed to wait often sang, fidgeted or imagined the treat as something they could not eat. The setting did part of the work that is usually credited to willpower.

In effect

In the article on whether the marshmallow test predicts success, it is the practical reading: arranging the setting so that waiting is easier.

What it does not say

It does not say that willpower plays no part, or that one arrangement suits everyone.

Sources

  1. Wood, W. Good Habits, Bad Habits.