Self-control is a hot topic across disciplines. As such, consensus on defining self-control is critical for advancing both scientific progress as well as societal impact of research findings. ...Specifically, the emergence of initiation as a self-control component, and the notion of effortless and strategic self-control, give rise to the question whether and how to distinguish self-control from self-regulation. In this paper, I propose an operational definition of self-control, based on converging definitions from the literature as well as on the emergence of new perspectives on self-control. The TOTE-model (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) of self-regulation will serve as a basis for this definition as it gives clear guidance for the inclusion of self-control as a component of, but not synonymous to self-regulation. Ultimately, an 'operational' definition is proposed in which self-regulation entails scaffolding for goal pursuit, including setting standards, and monitoring discrepancies, whereas self-control entails everything that one does in the 'operate' phase. This perspective allows for inclusion of traditional as well as contemporary research on self-control, and can provide direction for future studies.
On March 15, 2020, the Dutch Government implemented COVID-19 lockdown measures. Although self-quarantine and social-distancing measures were implemented, restrictions were less severe compared to ...several other countries. The aim of this study was to assess changes in eating behavior and food purchases among a representative adult sample in the Netherlands (n = 1030), five weeks into lockdown. The results show that most participants did not change their eating behaviors (83.0%) or food purchases (73.3%). However, socio-demographic differences were observed among those that reported changes during lockdown. For example, participants with overweight (OR = 2.26, 95%CI = 1.24–4.11) and obesity (OR = 4.21, 95%CI = 2.13–8.32) were more likely to indicate to eat unhealthier during lockdown compared to participants with a healthy weight. Those with a high educational level (OR = 2.25, 95%-CI = 1.03–4.93) were also more likely to indicate to eat unhealthier during lockdown compared to those with a low educational level. Older participants were more likely to indicate to experience no differences in their eating behaviors compared to those of younger age, who were more likely to indicate that they ate healthier (OR = 1.03, 95%CI = 1.01–1.04) as well as unhealthier (OR = 1.04, 95%CI = 1.02–1.06) during lockdown. Participants with obesity were more likely to indicate to purchase more chips/snacks (OR = 2.79, 95%CI = 1.43–5.45) and more nonalcoholic beverages (OR = 2.74, 95%CI = 1.36–5.50) during lockdown in comparison with those with a healthy weight. Of those that used meal delivery services before, 174 (29.5%) indicated to use meal delivery services more frequently during lockdown. Although the results confirm the persistence of dietary routines, profound socio-demographic differences were observed for those that did report changes. Especially for individuals with overweight and obesity, the lockdown has taken its toll on healthy dietary choices. Further research should unravel underlying mechanisms for these observations.
It seems common knowledge that trait self-control helps people to achieve the things they find important in their lives by not being distracted by immediate pleasures and temptations. Initial ...evidence suggests that trait self-control is important in well-being as well, with people high in self-control experiencing more positive momentary affect, life satisfaction, and happiness. Whereas it is not so difficult to imagine why effortful inhibition of impulses would benefit continued striving for long-term personal goals, it is more challenging to understand why self-control would make people happier and more satisfied with their lives. The present paper sets out to explain this intriguing phenomenon and aims to identify mechanisms by why people high in trait self-control experience better well-being. We examine potential underlying processes that may explain the role of trait self-control in well-being and propose initiation of desired behaviour and adaptive routines as key components of self-control in well-being that challenge the classic explanation of self-control as effortful inhibition.
The current food environment strongly communicates the normality of consuming unhealthy and unsustainable food products. However, it is unclear whether people truly support this unhealthy and ...unsustainable social norm, or that they follow the norm (reluctantly) because they believe that other people agree with it, a phenomenon that is generally known as pluralistic ignorance. While previous research has documented the existence of pluralistic ignorance in a variety of settings, it is unknown to what extent it directly influences behavior and which mechanism may account for this influence. The present study examines whether the perception that others seem to agree with unhealthy and unsustainable eating norms acts as a license to not change one's eating behavior and leads to complacency. We assessed pluralistic ignorance by comparing self- and other-scores on the importance, frequency, normalcy, and intentions dimensions of consuming healthy and sustainable food in a large sample of Dutch participants (N = 415). To investigate the effect of pluralistic ignorance on self-licensing and complacency, we calculated healthy and sustainable 'misperception scores' per dimension. Healthy eating misperceptions only marginally predicted self-licensing, but healthy misperceived intentions did predict an increase in complacency. Sustainable eating misperceptions seem more influential because misperceptions on importance and frequency predicted an increase in self-licensing, and sustainable misperceived normalcy predicted a decrease in complacency and intentions predicted an increase in complacency. These findings suggest that pluralistic ignorance may be more influential in sustainable eating since people could be uncertain what appropriate sustainable food choices are. Prospects for future research and suggestions to address pluralistic ignorance to potentially increase healthy and sustainable food choices are discussed.
Food literacy refers to the capability to make healthy food choices in different contexts, settings and situations. The aim of this study is to develop and validate the self-perceived food literacy ...(SPFL) scale, to assess individuals' level of food literacy, including a knowledge, skills and behavior to plan, manage, select, prepare and eat food healthfully.
An initial set of 50 items for the SPFL scale were generated based on expert insights and literature. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among a sample of Dutch adults (n = 755) in order to determine convergent, divergent and criterion validation against psychosocial variables that were expected to correlate with food literacy (self-control, impulsiveness) and against the expected outcome of high food literacy, namely healthy food consumption. Principal Component Analyses (PCA), Pearson correlation tests and linear regression analyses were conducted. The capacity to distinguish of the SPFL scale was determined by comparing SPFL scores of the general population with that of a sample of dieticians (n = 207).
The participants in the general sample had an average age of 44.8 (SD:16.1), the majority were women (90.7%), they had a healthy weight (61.4%) and were highly educated (59.1%). Of the initial 50 items, 29 items remained after PCA and reflected eight domains of food literacy. SPFL was positively correlated with self-control (r = 0.51, p = <.001) and negatively with impulsiveness (r = - 0.31, p = <.01). Participants with higher levels of food literacy reported a significantly higher frequency of fruit consumption (≥5 times/week), vegetable consumption (≥5times/week) and fish consumption (≥1times/week) and consumed larger portions of fruit (≥2pieces/day) and vegetables ≥200 g/day) in comparison with participants who had lower levels of food literacy. Dieticians had slightly higher scores on SPFL than general adults (B = 0.08, SE = 0.03, t = 2.83, 95%-CI = 0.03 to 0.14).
The 29 item SPFL scale is a validated, expert-based and theory-driven tool for measuring self-perceived food literacy with respect to healthy eating among adults. Higher levels of food literacy were associated with more self-control, less impulsiveness and healthier food consumption. Additional research is needed to validate the SPFL scale in different populations (different age groups, socioeconomic groups, male populations) and in different contexts.
High self-control is known to be related to the performance of behaviors that have long-term benefits, such as healthy eating. Recently, studies have suggested that people with high self-control may ...perform goal-directed behaviors not by exerting effortful control but rather by employing smart, effortless strategies. The current paper investigates the crucial role of behavioral resistance in the relation between self-control and goal-directed behaviors: we propose that people with high self-control feel less resistance toward goal-directed behaviors compared to people with low self-control, and that this is associated with the increased frequency of performing these behaviors. Three cross-sectional studies were conducted in which participants reported on their level of self-control, behavioral resistance toward behaviors in the sustainability, healthy eating, exercise, and study/work domains, and their behavior in those domains. Findings consistently show that the relation between self-control and various behaviors is indeed partially mediated by behavioral resistance, although the study designs preclude establishing causal relations. It is implied that lower resistance makes it easier for people with higher self-control to perform the goal-directed behaviors, without requiring much effort. This notion yields an interesting, novel perspective on how people with high self-control manage to function so well.
Abstract
Background
Adults with a low socioeconomic position (SEP) are more likely to engage in unhealthy diets as compared to adults with high SEP. However, individual-level educational ...interventions aiming to improve food choices have shown limited effectiveness in adults with low SEP. Environmental-level interventions such as nudging strategies however, may be more likely to benefit low SEP groups. We aimed to review the evidence for the effectiveness of nudges as classified according to interventions in proximal physical micro-environments typology (TIPPME) to promote healthy purchases, food choice, or affecting energy intake or content of purchases, within real-life food purchasing environments. Second, we aimed to investigate the potentially moderating role of SEP.
Methods
We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO until 31 January 2018. Studies were considered eligible for inclusion when they i) complied with TIPPME intervention definitions; ii) studied actual purchases, food choice, or energy intake or content of purchases, iii) and were situated in real-life food purchasing environments. Risk of bias was assessed using a quality assessment tool and evidence was synthesized using harvest plots.
Results
From the 9210 references identified, 75 studies were included. Studies were generally of weak to moderate quality. The most frequently studied nudges were information (56%), mixed (24%), and position nudges (13%). Harvest plots showed modest tendencies towards beneficial effects on outcomes for information and position nudges. Less evidence was available for other TIPPME nudging interventions for which the harvest plots did not show compelling patterns. Only six studies evaluated the effects of nudges across levels of SEP (e.g., educational level, food security status, job type). Although there were some indications that nudges were more effective in low SEP groups, the limited amount of evidence and different proxies of SEP used warrant caution in the interpretation of findings.
Conclusions
Information and position nudges may contribute to improving population dietary behaviours. Evidence investigating the moderating role of SEP was limited, although some studies reported greater effects in low SEP subgroups. We conclude that more high-quality studies obtaining detailed data on participant’s SEP are needed.
Registration
This systematic review is registered in the PROSPERO database (
CRD42018086983
).
When striving for long-term goals (e.g., healthy eating, saving money, reducing energy consumption, or maintaining interpersonal relationships), people often get in conflict with their short-term ...goals (e.g., enjoying tempting snacks, purchasing must-haves, getting warm, or watching YouTube video's). Previous research suggests that people who are successful in controlling their behavior in line with their long-term goals rely on effortless strategies, such as good habits. In the present study, we aimed to track how self-control capacity affects the development of good habits in real life over a period of 90 days. Results indicated that habit formation increased substantially over the course of three months, especially for participants who consistently performed the desired behavior during this time. Contrary to our expectations, however, self-control capacity did not seem to affect the habit formation process. Directions for future research on self-control and other potential moderators in the formation of good habits are discussed.
In contrast to prevailing beliefs, recent research suggests that trait self-control promotes health behavior not because those high in self-control are more successful at resisting single ...temptations, but rather because they develop adaptive habits. The present paper presents a first empirical test of this novel suggestion by investigating the mediating role of habit in explaining the relation between self-control and unhealthy snacking behavior. Results showed that self-control was negatively associated with unhealthy snack consumption and unhealthy snacking habits. As hypothesized, the relation between self-control and unhealthy snack intake was mediated by habit strength. Self-control was not associated with fruit consumption or fruit consumption habits. These results provide the first evidence for the notion that high self-control may influence the formation of habits and in turn affect behavior. Moreover, results imply that self-control may be particularly influential in case of inhibiting unhealthy food intake rather than promoting healthy food intake.
The current field experiment demonstrates the effectiveness of nudging to promote healthy food choices.
Three types of nudges were implemented at a take-away food vendor: 1) an accessibility nudge ...that placed fruits at the front counter; 2) a salience nudge that presented healthy bread rolls to be more visually attractive; and 3) a social proof nudge that conveyed yoghurt as a popular choice. We additionally assessed whether nudging effects would remain robust when a disclosure message was included. The field experiment was conducted over a seven-week period. The measured outcome was the sales of the targeted healthy food products.
The accessibility nudge significantly increased the sales of the fresh fruits. The impact of the salience nudge was limited presumably due to existing preferences or habits that typically facilitate bread purchases. As the sales of the yoghurt shakes remained consistently low over the seven-week period the impact of the social proof nudge remained unexamined. Critically, disclosing the purpose of the nudges did not interfere with effects.
Current findings suggest nudging as an effective strategy for healthy food promotion, and offer implications for topical debate regarding the ethics of nudges.
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