Willpower is the ability to resist immediate temptations to attain long-term goals. It is having the self-control to resist that piece of cake, drink, cigarette, or any other temptation or bad habit. It is learning to not procrastinate and to buckle down to do the task at hand or work toward that long-term goal. And, it’s very hard for many of us to develop and maintain.
For example, cognitive researchers have recently looked into willpower and how it relates to establishing new behavior patterns. Some of their discoveries are as counterintuitive as they are fascinating. One of those has to do with a phenomenon called moral licensing.
If we’ve been successfully dieting for a while, we may come to the point where we congratulate ourselves on how well we’re doing. Before we know it, we might tell ourselves, “I’ve been doing so well on my diet lately, I deserve a treat!” Then, we’ll overindulge in unhealthy food and undo a good deal of the progress we’ve made.
Moral licensing seems to result whenever we turn our behavior into a test of personal virtue. Attaching a moral dimension to a change in behavior tends to work against us and derail us from reaching our goals. We may be more effective if we simply stay with our desires. Remembering why we want this change and the rewards that will result from a healthy diet seems to be a better way of staying on track. There’s something about the way our minds are wired that makes us look for opportunities to be “bad” whenever we’ve succeeded at being “good” for a while.
Another phenomenon that feeds moral licensing is one psychologists call the halo effect. If a product is labeled “healthy choice,” “low-calorie,” or some other designation we tend to associate with virtue, the halo effect kicks in. Subconsciously, we tell ourselves that it must be okay to eat this because it says “healthy choice” right on the label! This is also the case whenever product is marketed with the
mention that the company makes a donation to a charity with every purchase. Even if the product is one t