Ask yourself the question
Ask yourself the question by Aare Omotoyosi O Craig on Friday, May 6, 2011 at 1:38pm
You're an attractive person in a loving, committed, happy relationship. Still, there is temptation at every turn. At the grocery store, the cute person at check-out smiles at you with a raised eyebrow. Later, walking down the street you help an attractive person pick up something they dropped, and strike up a conversation. This person asks for your number. What do you do? Why don't you cheat? What's stopping you? In moments like these, there is a conflict between your immediate gut instincts and your more longer-term goals to stay committed to your partner. Having the gut instinct in itself isn't wrong. It's actually quite natural (it means you're human!). Mostly everyone, single or not, is automatically pulled toward beautiful people. When confronted with an attractive person, people's approach tendencies activate automatically and they tend to gaze longer into the eyes of the attractive person. All of this happens without any effort or control whatsoever. Making eye contact with an attractive person is even rewarding to our brain Considering how universal, automatic, and potent these tendencies are, one might wonder: why doesn't everyone cheat? Why are some people better able at resisting this immediate temptation than others? Recent research suggests the answer has a lot to do with cognitive control. The default state is to act on impulse. Overriding this requires mental effort, and the more attractive alternatives you have (imagine all the offers Tiger Woods received), the harder it is to control your impulses In recent years, neuropsychologists have located a set of brain areas located in the frontal lobe (around the forehead) of humans that support self-control processes. These so-called "executive functions", which were the last bit of our brain to evolve, involve the ability to plan, inhibit, or delay responding. Whenever someone must focus hard on a task and ignore distractions, this area is particularly active. The extent to which these areas of the brain light up predicts a lot of important outcomes, including whether people are likely to follow the rule norms of society, resist a wide variety of temptations, and engage in risky behaviors. Executive control even predicts the ability to resist the urge to eat M&M's when on a d
You're an attractive person in a loving, committed, happy relationship. Still, there is temptation at every turn. At the grocery store, the cute person at check-out smiles at you with a raised eyebrow. Later, walking down the street you help an attractive person pick up something they dropped, and strike up a conversation. This person asks for your number. What do you do? Why don't you cheat? What's stopping you? In moments like these, there is a conflict between your immediate gut instincts and your more longer-term goals to stay committed to your partner. Having the gut instinct in itself isn't wrong. It's actually quite natural (it means you're human!). Mostly everyone, single or not, is automatically pulled toward beautiful people. When confronted with an attractive person, people's approach tendencies activate automatically and they tend to gaze longer into the eyes of the attractive person. All of this happens without any effort or control whatsoever. Making eye contact with an attractive person is even rewarding to our brain Considering how universal, automatic, and potent these tendencies are, one might wonder: why doesn't everyone cheat? Why are some people better able at resisting this immediate temptation than others? Recent research suggests the answer has a lot to do with cognitive control. The default state is to act on impulse. Overriding this requires mental effort, and the more attractive alternatives you have (imagine all the offers Tiger Woods received), the harder it is to control your impulses In recent years, neuropsychologists have located a set of brain areas located in the frontal lobe (around the forehead) of humans that support self-control processes. These so-called "executive functions", which were the last bit of our brain to evolve, involve the ability to plan, inhibit, or delay responding. Whenever someone must focus hard on a task and ignore distractions, this area is particularly active. The extent to which these areas of the brain light up predicts a lot of important outcomes, including whether people are likely to follow the rule norms of society, resist a wide variety of temptations, and engage in risky behaviors. Executive control even predicts the ability to resist the urge to eat M&M's when on a d
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