The tendency to discount larger future benefits in favor of smaller immediate gains (i.e., temporal discounting) is relevant to the issue of obesity. Successful weight loss requires individuals to sacrifice immediate culinary pleasures in favor of future health gains. Based on the notion that increasing the vividness of one's future self may mitigate temporal discounting and promote the ability to delay gratification, we examined whether viewing one's weight-reduced self (i.e., the ideal self) in a virtual environment can decrease temporal discounting and lead to better regulation of dietary practices. Seventy-six undergraduates who had reported an intention to lose weight were recruited to participate in a laboratory experiment and were randomly assigned to interact with either the weight-reduced self (experimental condition) or the present self (control condition) by looking into a dressing mirror in a virtual fitting room. A temporal-discounting task and a taste test were subsequently administered. Results showed that, compared with control participants, participants who viewed their weight-reduced avatars ate less ice cream in a taste test and were more likely to choose a sugar-free drink as a reward. The discounting rate mediated the association between the avatar manipulation and the amount of ice cream eaten in the subsequent taste test. Overall, our findings suggest that a computer-generated image of one's weight-reduced self may assist in resisting impulses that promote immediate gratification over delayed benefits. This research provides a new approach for controlling impulsive behavior such as dietary regulation and weight control.
The systematic use of Web search tools to browse and evaluate recommendations is widespread. Such tools may be crucial for users to truly benefit from the enormous selection of options available online. However, a recent study demonstrated that a greater number of search options triggered excessive searching and led to inferior decisions (i.e., the more-means-worse effect; Wu & Chiou, 2009). Given that individuals who are motivated to make accurate choices (the accuracy incentive) tend to engage in broader and more exhaustive searches, Experiment 1 examined how the accuracy incentive influenced the search process. The findings indicated that the accuracy incentive led to excessive searching and poorer choices. Moreover, the search ratio, an indicator of excessive searching, mediated the negative effect of the accuracy incentive on choice quality. Experiment 2 investigated the role of the need for cognition (NFC) in the more-means-worse effect. High-NFC participants demonstrated an increased tendency toward excessive searching and exhibited poorer selectivity than did low-NFC participants. The current research indicated that the accuracy incentive of online searchers may serve as a determinant of excessive searching and that online searchers characterized by high NFC may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of excessive searching.Note: Confidence intervals were set at 95%. N = 30 for each experimental condition.
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