Religious paradigms almost always
involve the concept of self-control. The willingness to give up today for a
better tomorrow. That “denying oneself” temporal pleasures leads us to
appreciate the timeless virtues. But what does science tell us about
self-control?
Psychologists believe that a
person’s willpower can be measured through observation. This can involve
recording how people behave in a laboratory setting. For example, a recent
experiment involved people getting the choice of radishes and choco-chip
cookies after they were forced to skip a meal. Those who were able to exert
willpower to avoid the choco-chip cookies were able to exercise greater
self-control in other areas of life too. Another experiment in economics
involved children who were asked to resist the temptation of candy to get more
candies. Those who were able to restrain were also more likely to be richer
adults. Psychologists have shown
that one way to improve one’s willpower “muscles” is to have more glucose, as a
brain short on glucose and sugar is likely to be fatigued and so more prone to
take irrational decisions. In other words, to exercise candy control, one may
need more candies.
The exercise of restraint can
differ according to person, time, object and environment. People easily give in
to temptation in certain dimensions and not in others, such as addiction-forming
habits like drinking, smoking or drugs. Moreover, these can change over time
and space. Often, these habits will have spillover effects on the surroundings.
Thus, even a libertarian might argue that government intervention is necessary
because individuals may harm each other by not taking into account the result
of their actions. Several governments have banned smoking in public places.
This has the upside of not only avoiding passive smoking but also strengthens
the average person’s willpower who otherwise might have become addicted to
smoking.
Thus, willpower is like an axe.
It can get sharpened through activities like meditation and imposition of
self-discipline (learning) but it can also get blunt through mundane activities
when self-control is lacking (fatigue). Recent economic studies also find that
increasing mental fatigue in a poor person’s life when he has to make several
mundane choices may in turn lead to an (irrational) lower investment in human
capital. In one of my field experiments on child malnutrition, I correlate how
much “junk food” a young child eats and the mother’s self-control as measured
by her proclivity to save for the future. Although, this work is in progress, I
expect that the mother will “give in” more easily to a child’s demands if she
also likes to buy other items (like a TV) now rather than later all other
things remaining same, for instance the average income of the family, location
and education.
What determines a person’s
willpower? Is it inborn or can it be acquired? These questions are still at the
frontier of research, but it appears that those who are religiously and
spiritually inclined show higher levels of willpower. Just as countries grow faster in the long run with greater
investment into education, machinery and technology, we may show quicker
personal growth if we learn to be more spiritual. The paradox here is that to
be more spiritual, one needs to have more self-control. Spirituality and
self-control feed off each other and this prompts the question as to what may
be driving both spirituality and self-control? They can come through building
of institutions. Where the families enforce discipline and at the same time
allow inner growth. Where there is selection: you do not want even one bad
apple to spoil the rest. Where there is punishment for sinning and incentive
for being disciplined. Where there is more stick for vices that are addictive
and have greater spillovers. Where there are more carrots for giving up
choco-chip cookies. Where these rules are clear to everyone from an early
stage. Where there is a sense of community such that everyone can monitor each
other. Only then, can we move towards a utopian world.
Yet again, the paradox is that in
order to build such institutions, one needs enormous willpower.
No comments:
Post a Comment