Beware the Siren’s Song - Maintain self-control by avoiding temptation

Homer wrote of Odysseus that he was so worried about the allure of the siren’s song, he put wax in his shipmates’ ears and had himself tied to his ship’s mast and, furthermore, erroneous beliefs about one’s capacity for exercising restraint can lead to maladaptive self-control strategies. Unlike that hero of mythology, though, most people overestimate their capacity to control their impulses, according to a researcher at the Kellogg School of Management. His four fascinating studies show that people in a cold, non-impulsive state will overestimate their impulse-control capacity; people in a hot, impulsive state will have a more realistic view of their capacity for impulse control; and people who perceive that they have a high capacity for impulse control will expose themselves to more temptation and will ultimately exhibit more impulsive behavior...


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