Counteractive control over temptations: Promoting resistance through enhanced perception of conflict and goal value

TLDR: This article explored people's everyday practice of counteractive control and found that strong temptation prompted stronger resistance and restraint of behaviors, compared to those cases where no conflict was perceived, indicating that a strong desire toward temptation intensified perception of conflict, and perceived conflict bolstered the value of goals that were in disagreement with the temptation.

Abstract: The present research explored people’s everyday practice of counteractive control. Experience sampling was used to test our prediction that strong temptations would promote self-control. Participants were 237 Japanese citizens with ages ranging from 18 to 69. Results indicated that perceived temptation prompted stronger resistance and restraint of behaviors, compared to those cases where no conflict was perceived. In addition, multilevel path analysis revealed the underlying process such that (a) a strong desire toward temptation intensified perception of conflict; (b) perceived conflict bolstered the value of goals that were in disagreement with the temptation; and (c) highly valued goals promoted self-control (i.e., stronger resistance and hence less yielding to temptation).

Figures

Table 2. Prediction of situational variables (Level 1) by personality predictors (Level 2) in the multilevel path analysis on temptation cases.

Figure 2. Results of multilevel analyses showing the effect of desire strength on resistance and behavior enactment. All Bs are unstandardized coefficients. Values in square brackets are 95% CIs. † p = 10. *** p < .001.

Table 1. Results of Multilevel Analyses on the Means of Within-Person Variables for Temptations and Nontemptations

Figure 1. The conceptual model of counteractive control over temptation. The pathway in fine lines depicts the process of motivated behavior originally proposed by Hofmann et al., (2012), including desire strength, conflict, resistance (use of self-control) as predictors of behavior enactment. The pathway in bold lines represents the main proposal of the current study, describing the mental process of counteractive control involving bolstered perception of conflict and goal value when temptations are encountered. External arrows indicate that each step in the model may be moderated by demographic and personality factors.

Full text

COUNTERACTIVE CONTROL OVER TEMPTATIONS 1
Counteractive Control over Temptations: Promoting Resistance through Enhanced Perception
of Conflict and Goal Value
Yuka Ozaki
Toyo University
Takayuki Goto
Kyoto University
Mai Kobayashi
Rissho University
Wilhelm Hofmann
University of Cologne
(PREPRINT – Accepted by Self and Identity, December 2016)
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by HIRC21 and by JSPS KAKENHI under Grant 26780347 and
12J05193.
Running head: COUNTERACTIVE CONTROL OVER TEMPTATIONS

COUNTERACTIVE CONTROL OVER TEMPTATIONS 2
Abstract
The present research explored people’s everyday practice of counteractive control.
Experience sampling was used to test our prediction that strong temptations would promote
self-control. Participants were 237 Japanese citizens with ages ranging from 18 to 69. Results
indicated that perceived temptation prompted stronger resistance and restraint of behaviors,
compared to those cases where no conflict was perceived. In addition, multilevel path
analysis revealed the underlying process such that (a) a strong desire toward temptation
intensified perception of conflict; (b) perceived conflict bolstered the value of goals that were
in disagreement with the temptation; and (c) highly valued goals promoted self-control (i.e.,
stronger resistance and hence less yielding to temptation). (109 words)
Keywords: self-regulation, desire, temptation, conflict, goal

COUNTERACTIVE CONTROL OVER TEMPTATIONS 3
Counteractive Control over Temptations: Promoting Resistance through Enhanced Perception
of Conflict and Goal Value
Temptations are everywhere. At times, their seductions seem to be so strong and
irresistible that they compromise our will to control ourselves. However, is it really the case
that powerful temptations impose devastating effect on our self-control? A series of studies
on counteractive control (e.g., Fishbach, Zhang, & Trope, 2010; Kroese, Adriaanse, Evers, &
De Ridder, 2011; Myrseth, Fishbach, & Trope, 2009; Trope & Fishbach, 2000) tells us
otherwise: Temptations may sometimes bring beneficial impact to self-control processes,
such that it prompts us to execute goal-directed behaviors. The aim of the present study is to
describe the mechanism by which individuals offset the negative impact of temptation
through counteractive control, and to investigate how prevalent this is in people’s daily lives.
Specifically, a model of the psychological process that enables us to practice counteractive
control is proposed and empirically tested with data collected through an experience sampling
survey.
Counteractive Control
Temptations have long been considered to undermine goal attainment. Meanwhile,
recent research has suggested that presence of temptations may promote the capacity for
self-control through a mechanism known as counteractive control (Trope & Fishbach, 2000).
The basic idea of counteractive control is that temptations trigger a variety of cognitive,
affective, and motivational processes congruent with goal pursuit, thereby enabling
goal-directed behavior.

COUNTERACTIVE CONTROL OVER TEMPTATIONS 4
To successfully counteract temptations, an individual must first identify the presence
of a self-control conflict. The above proposal originates from the two-stage model of
self-control by Myrseth and Fishbach (2009) asserting that the likelihood of self-control
success depends on both identifying self-control conflict (Stage 1) and invoking effective
self-control strategies (Stage 2). In Stage 1, an individual identifies (or does not identify) the
presence of a conflict between indulging in temptation and pursuing important goals. If and
only if the individual identifies a conflict, they will enter Stage 2 in which they exercise
self-control strategies to promote goal-pursuit over indulgence in temptation.
Concerning Stage 1, the beneficial effect of conflict identification on self-control has
been intensively investigated in a series of studies on conflict monitoring (e.g., Botvinick,
Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001). To effectively exercise self-control, the control
processes need to detect situations calling for their involvement (Myrseth & Fishbach, 2009).
In the process, current levels of conflict are first evaluated, and then the information is passed
on to relevant systems which adjust the strength of their influence on processing. As such,
identification of conflict plays a crucial role in the self-control process as a trigger to activate
the systems which enables the person to resist tempting situations.
As to Stage 2 in which people implement self-control strategies, various alternatives
have been proposed as manifestations of counteractive control (for a review, see Myrseth &
Fishbach, 2009), such as self-imposed penalties or rewards (Trope & Fishbach, 2000, Studies
1 and 2), devaluation of temptation (Myrseth et al., 2009), and adopting a concrete
representation of self-control goals (Gollwitzer & Brandstatter, 1997) but an abstract

COUNTERACTIVE CONTROL OVER TEMPTATIONS 5
representation of temptations (Mischel, Shoda, & Rodriguez, 1989). The strategy that is the
focus of the current study involves the alteration of goal values. The psychological meaning
of future choice situations can be changed by bolstering the value of activities that have
long-term importance. Specifically, people may link attainment of long-term goals to their
general self-standards, which serves as an instigator of self-control, accordingly enabling
them to achieve control over their own behavior. For example, Study 5 by Trope and
Fishbach (2000) demonstrated that priming a social motive (a short-term temptation) in
students who were expecting an upcoming exam was sufficient to elicit counteractive control
by bolstering the value of studying (a long-term goal). These findings imply that bolstering of
goal value is one of the adaptive strategies which enable us to counteract the effect of
temptations.
However, the above studies on counteractive control were administered almost
exclusively in laboratory settings, with a few exceptions of field experiments (e.g., Myrseth
et al., 2009). Therefore, not much is known yet about how prevalently or how effectively the
counteractive mechanism works in people’s everyday lives. In addition, previous
investigations are almost exclusively focused on temptations of food (vs. diet goals) and
leisure (vs. academic goals). Although admittedly these two kinds of temptations are
considered to be the most problematic ones amongst all of those in modern societies,
nevertheless, there should be a much longer list of temptations that people face in everyday
life. Theoretically, the mechanism of counteractive control should be generalized to a diverse
range of temptations, although there has not been much accumulation of empirical data to

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Counteractive control over temptations" ?

This paper explored people 's everyday practice of counteractive control and found that strong temptation prompted stronger resistance and restraint of behaviors compared to those cases where no conflict was perceived. 

Q2. What is the effect of a strong and problematic desire on self-control?

Specifically experience of a strong and problematic desire should intensify the perception of conflict, therefore triggering exertion of strategies to counteract the temptation which may or may not involve bolstered goal value, resulting in enhanced capacity of resistance. 

Q3. What is the basic idea of counteractive control?

The basic idea of counteractive control is that temptations trigger a variety of cognitive, affective, and motivational processes congruent with goal pursuit, thereby enabling goal-directed behavior. 

Q4. What was the effect of age on behavior enactment?

Age had a positive impact on behavior enactment, indicating older persons were more likely to yield to temptations; and gender showed a significant effect on goal value, such that males place higher value on opposing goal(s) compared to females. 

Q5. How long did the participants have to respond to the email messages?

The email messages instructed them to make a response as soon as possible, within 2 hours at the latest, after receiving the message. 

Q6. What is the role of conflict in self-control?

As such, identification of conflict plays a crucial role in the self-control process as a trigger to activate the systems which enables the person to resist tempting situations. 

Q7. What is the main contribution of the present study?

the major and original contribution of the present study is the introduction of a new predictor (i.e., goal value) 1 and related pathways of impact into the model, with the aim of describing the detailed flow of psychological processes underlying counteractive control. 

Q8. What is the effect of the quadratic term of desire strength on the degree of conflict?

Desire strength had a positive impact on the degree of conflict, indicating that the presence of a strong temptation serves as a signal to detect conflict situations, as suggested by Kroese, Evers, et al. (2011). 

Q9. What is the effect of the phenomenon of temptations directly triggering defensive mechanisms?

The phenomenon of temptations directly triggering defensive mechanisms would be very adaptive and has been found to berelated to self-control success (Fishbach et al., 2003; Papies, Stroebe, & Aarts, 2008). 

Q10. What is the effect of the mediation analysis on self-control?

despite their possible instigation toward counteractive control, it does not seem to result in better self-control, at least in a form of inhibiting desired (but problematic) behavior, as was shown in mediation analyses that revealed no indirect effect on behavior enactment via goal value nor conflict. 

Q11. How many observations were responded to within 15 minutes?

The delay in responding to the signal was quite low, with48.7% of the observations responded to within 15 minutes after the signal. 

Q12. What are the main predicting factors of the current study?

In line with the original work, the predicting factors were defined as follows: desire as an event in which an object or activity is associated with pleasure or relief of discomfort; conflict as the perception that there is some reason not to enact the desire and thus serves to distinguish unproblematic desires from temptations;resistance (self-control) as a controlled effort to prevent oneself from enacting the desire. 

Q13. how is the concept of a counteractive control process integrated into the model?

the notion of a counteractive control process reported in previous literature is integrated into the model via a combination of 3 arrows connecting conflict, goal value, and resistance in Figure 1. 

Q14. What is the effect of personality traits on the conflict experience of any degree?

Their analyses on the effect of personality traits were run on the temptation cases only (i.e., conflict experience of any degree is reported), which means that it excludes the situation in which conflict was successfully avoided (as suggested by the former account). 

Q15. What is the first prediction of the present study?

The first prediction is that the identification of conflict triggers a shift in goal value, following the previous findings from experimental studies (e.g., Trope & Fishbach, 2000). 

Q16. What is the novel feature of the study?

A novel feature of their study in this research context is that it not only compares the temptation and nontemptation cases, but also includes the strength of temptation as a continuous variable predicting self-control. 

Q17. What is the effect of social models on the ability to resist temptations?

Another possibility is the effect of social models, such that the presence of others who are already implementing the desired action may boost the strength of desire and also compromise people’s motivation to resist (Hofmann et al., 2002). 

Q18. What is the effect of desire strength on the perceived conflict?

In sum, their analyses replicate the idea that knowing about a person’s level of desire strength (in the absence of anything else), does not generally allow one to predict that person’s conflict state, as both unproblematic and problematic desires can be weak or strong.