Our 'instant-gratification' culture often makes it tough to resist temptation

By Roy Rivenburg
Los Angeles Times

	SUSAN JOUFLAS / THE SEATTLE TIMES
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The trouble can start at the refrigerator, in the bedroom or on the job. An overpowering urge beckons you to inhale a carton of Haagen-Dazs, cheat on your spouse or sneak to the beach instead of writing a newspaper story that was due two weeks ago.

Since the dawn of time, humans have wrestled with temptation. "I don't understand myself," St. Paul lamented in the 1st century. "I want to do what is right but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate."

And that was before Krispy Kreme and Internet porn. If Paul were alive today, he'd really be tormented. Psychologists say America's "instant-gratification" culture has made resisting temptation harder than ever.

But researchers are discovering ways to boost willpower. Curiously, many of their methods echo what religious mystics taught centuries ago, with some modern twists thrown in.

A growing dilemma

At first glance, temptation might not seem like an urgent national problem. But experts say its tentacles weave through a host of social ills — divorce, obesity, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, even general misery (studies show that people with strong self-control are happier).

In the 1970s, scientists at Stanford University used marshmallows to investigate temptation's power. Preschoolers were left alone with instructions that they could eat one marshmallow right away, or wait 15 minutes and get two marshmallows.

Some went for the immediate payoff; others held back, distracting themselves from the puffy white treat by singing, trying to sleep or covering their eyes.
 
A decade later, researchers tracked down the children and, according to news reports, found that those who had waited for the second marshmallow were smarter and more self-confident.

No surprise there, says psychologist Nick Baylis of Cambridge University. Although self-control might seem limiting, it actually "enables us to behave in line with our deepest principles and most treasured goals" by freeing us from "slavery to temporary appetites."

Unfortunately, second-marshmallow thinking has nose-dived in recent years.

In some quarters, temptation is embraced as a marketing tool. Fox built an entire TV show around the concept: "Temptation Island." And other companies have enshrined the word in product names for cereals, body lotions and fast food.

We too often indulge ourselves

Resisting temptation is a dying art, says South Carolina psychologist Howard J. Rankin. Part of the problem is that technology and pop culture have trained people to expect instant gratification of their desires. So when a temptation comes along, they're inclined to indulge it, he says. Exhibit A: 61 percent of Americans are now overweight.

Lack of willpower can also fuel unfaithfulness in relationships, he suggests: "The requirements for a loving relationship run completely counter to the mentality of an instant, disposable and user-friendly society. We are bombarded with messages about ease and convenience but come home to relationships that simply do not fit that mode."

On a deeper level, temptation is driven by "dissatisfaction with life and what you've got," says Dallas Willard, a University of Southern California philosophy professor. The No. 1 antidote, he says, is to "find a way to be grateful and thankful, and then dwell on it, because temptation thrives on dissatisfaction."

Willpower and 'urge surfing'

One of the Catch-22s of temptation is that successfully deflecting one enticement can undermine resistance to others.

That's because willpower fades after each use, researchers say. Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Florida State University, documented the phenomenon using a stash of radishes. He assembled a crew of student guinea pigs, starved them for several hours, then handed each person a plate of chocolate chip cookies and radishes. One group was allowed to feast on the cookies; the rest were asked to steel their resolve and eat only the radishes.

Next, both groups were instructed to perform a tedious task for as long as they could. The upshot was that the students who had expended mental energy avoiding the cookies gave up on the tedious task sooner than everyone else. "Resisting temptation is often morally necessary, but it has a psychological cost," Baumeister concluded.

The "radish effect" might also help explain why rock stars and Hollywood celebrities seem to have such trouble withstanding the lure of infidelity and drugs. The sheer volume of temptations overwhelms their ability to resist.

But even against long odds, temptation can be tamed, experts say. The tricks of the trade include "urge surfing," writing with your opposite hand and practicing holding your breath.

At the University of Washington, researchers created an anti-temptation program based on a "cognitive behavioral model" of the "thoughts, feelings and beliefs" that come into play during a craving.

It's a defensive approach, says G. Alan Marlatt, director of the university's Addictive Behaviors Research Center: "We teach people to anticipate temptations before they crop up, and plan accordingly."

Step one is to figure out your "high-risk situations" — the moods (such as loneliness), times of day (such as happy hour), locations and other patterns that tend to trigger unwanted impulses. Once you identify the catalysts, try to steer clear of them, he advises.

'Think through the drink'

In a twisted sense, "we enjoy temptation," says Willard. "We like to turn it over in our minds and think about how it would be if we gave in." Once that happens, "your feet are on the ice."

In Alcoholics Anonymous, this technique is called "think through the drink," Marlatt says. Let your imagination run past the pleasure of satisfying the impulse to the guilt you'll feel after giving in, and to long-range health, relationship and career consequences. "Usually there are bigger costs down the line."

Rankin, the South Carolina psychologist, endorses much of Marlatt's method but says it doesn't go far enough. If you merely try to avoid temptations, they still have some control over you, he writes in "The TOPS Way to Weight Loss." His advice: Instead of waiting for temptation, "go out and hunt it down."

In Rankin's program, willpower-deficient patients build immunity to temptation through gradual exposure to their vice. If a woman craves ice cream, for example, the process might begin with having her enter an ice cream parlor and then immediately leave. Phase two might be to visit the parlor with friends and stand by while they scarf down some rocky road.

Ahead of each step, Rankin has patients visualize their success. Practicing resistance in the mind improves willpower in real life, he says.

Perhaps the oddest-sounding temptation remedy comes from Baumeister, the Florida psych professor. He claims that any kind of self-discipline — holding your breath, fasting, writing like a southpaw if you're right-handed — can strengthen willpower.

Don't laugh, says Willard. It's really just a modern spin on ancient wisdom. "The old spiritual masters understood that if you're good at fasting, you're probably good at overcoming other desires. The human will works very much like a muscle. ... If you train yourself not to do something" in one arena, it spills over.

Is it all in your head?

Still, no anti-temptation system is foolproof. Failures and slips are inevitable. And therein lies one of the biggest dangers, experts say. Many people assume backsliding "proves" they have no willpower, Marlatt says. Instead of analyzing what went wrong and developing a new strategy, they give up.

Or they assume they're "addicted," a word that drives Rutgers University sociologist Jackson Toby up the wall.

"A lot of what we call addictions these days are really just old-fashioned temptations," he says, citing gambling, overeating and promiscuity as undeserving of the addiction tag.

Although he concedes that some addictions have a biological component, he insists there's almost nothing that humans can't resist if they feel strongly enough or think it's wrong enough.

" 'Compulsive' does not mean that biological needs take control of the individual so [powerfully] that he cannot suppress them," he wrote in the Public Interest, a journal of politics and culture.

In other words, temptation is all in your head, Toby says.

However, for those who don't have the energy to drive it out, there is one alternative. In the words of playwright Oscar Wilde, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company