(PCM) Do you have trouble sticking to your diets, especially when it comes to avoiding temptations at dinner parties? Believe it or not, two simple words just might be able to change that.
A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that people who say “I don’t” rather than “I can’t” fare better when tempted with treats. That’s right: two little words can make the difference in choosing healthier options or abstaining from food completely.
In “‘I Don’t’ versus ‘I Can’t’: When Empowered Refusal Motivates Goal-Directed Behavior,” 30 working women, ages 22 to 53, were signed up for a 10-day health and wellness program. All were told to use the “I don’t” versus “I can’t” refusal strategy. Researchers found that 8 of the 10 “I don’ts” followed through the program for the full 10 days, but only one of the “I can’ts” (and three of the controls) continued on to the end. This suggests that saying “I Don’t” increased the participants’ feelings of autonomy and control, greater self-awareness, and positive behavioral change, saying study author Vanessa Patrick, Ph.D., of the University of Houston.
The second experiment asked 120 people to tell themselves “I don’t” or I can’t” depending on a series of hypothetical situations. (For example, at a party, if offered a greasy meatball, you would say “I don’t eat those” or “I can’t eat those.”) They were then asked to rank their feelings of empowerment and self control. As they were leaving the lab, they were asked to choose between two snacks—an unhealthy candy bar versus a healthy granola bar—provided by the experimenter as a token of appreciation.
They found that twice as many of the “I don’t” responders skipped a snack altogether. And 64% of the participants who said “I don’t” chose the healthy granola snack while 39% of those who said “I can’t” took the chocolate.
“The finding supports our theorizing that the don’t refusal frame is more empowering and more likely to lead to resistance to temptation than the can’t refusal frame,” says Patrick.
Interesting!
More:
Perfection and Dieting: Why the Two Don’t Go Together
