Willpower

The Sirens’ Song

Temptations and distractions lurk at every turn. Researchers who studied more than 200 people in Germany found that participants spent at least four hours daily resisting their desires. The urges to eat, nap, take a break, have sex, surf the net or watch television are constant lures. Participants succumbed to about one out of every six cravings, particularly those for food or media interaction.

The concept of willpower as an inner strength that humans use to protect against moral decrepitude became popular in the Victorian age. People debated whether morality would influence behavior in the absence of religion, a reaction to society’s waning faith in dogma. Oscar Wilde’s exclamation, “I can resist everything except temptation,” was a rejoinder to this public worrying. The notion of willpower weakened in the 1960s as the “me generation” expounded the virtue of “if it feels good, do it.” By the 1970s, “self-esteem” became popular as studies showed that people with self-confidence were happier and more successful than those without. Behavioral scientists didn’t revisit the idea of “self-regulation” until the 1980s.

In the 1960s, Walter Mischel ...