"What is stronger than the human will?"
The answer:"The Little Debbie Snack Cake."
An article in A Level Psychology Resources reported: "In an article in the September/October 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Dutch researchers found that there is a substantial inconsistency between participants' good intentions to choose a healthy snack and their actual behaviour. Participants were asked about their intentions in choosing among four snacks: an apple, a banana, a candy bar and a molasses waffle. About half of the participants indicated they would choose the apple or banana—a "healthy" snack. But when presented, one week later, with the actual snacks, 27% switched to the candy bar or waffle. Over 90% of the unhealthy-choice participants stuck with their intentions and chose the unhealthy snack. The study included 585 participants who were office employees recruited in their worksite cafeterias. Although intentions are often tightly linked to what people really do, it doesn't always work that way. One explanation is that intentions are usually under cognitive control while actual choices are often made impulsively, even unconsciously." They had to do RESEARCH to figure this out?! I could have told them that and saved them the time and effort! It was, however, funny as presented in Q&A form on NPR (Listen to the portion of the show that contains this piece (4min)).photo by Micky on flickr
2 comments:
Yeah, seriously . . . they had to do research on that??
EXACTLY!!
Upon rereading this, I have found a part of a sentence that stands out and that I've been pondering:
" . . . intentions are usually under cognitive control while actual choices are often made impulsively, even unconsciously."
I think there's some weight there (no pun intended!).
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