“I can resist anything but temptation.” -Oscar Wilde

Common wisdom holds that we should reduce temptation by avoiding contact with tempting things. For instance: don’t keep chocolate in the house.

However, the “scarcity principle” says we are more tempted by things that are less available. So does avoiding chocolate actually make us more tempted?

In one study, psychologists offered women either chocolate or a protein bar as they left the gym. Most chose the protein. Before choosing, the women were not particularly tempted by the chocolate. But after selecting the protein bar, when chocolate was no longer an option, temptation for the chocolate skyrocketed.

In his life-changing book, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, psychologist Roy Baumeister compares self-control to a muscle.

This may explain scarcity-related temptation in two ways. First, being exposed to tempting things builds our willpower muscles. Second, we may have a system that automatically fights temptation when we know things are available. Then, when they become unavailable we may stop resisting to preserve our limited self-control.

The protein bar researchers nicknamed this automated temptation-reduction system “counteractive self-control“.

So maybe we should all keep more chocolate in the house to engage our counteractive self-control and flex our willpower muscles a bit?

CLICK HERE TO HAVE ANDY’S QUOTES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EACH MORNING!