Watching or even thinking about someone with good self-control makes others more likely to exert self-control, say researchers.
Thinking about someone who exercises self-control by regularly exercising, for example, can make you more likely to stick to your financial goals, career goals or anything else that takes self-control on your part.
Researchers found that the opposite also holds true, so that people with bad self-control influence others negatively.
The effect is so powerful, in fact, that seeing the name of someone with good or bad self-control flashing on a screen for just 10 milliseconds changed the behaviour of volunteers.
“The take-home message is that picking social influences that are positive can improve your self-control,” said Michelle vanDellen, who led the study.
“And by exhibiting self-control, you’re helping others around you do the same,” said vanDellen, visiting assistant professor in psychology, University of Georgia-Atlanta (UGA).
People tend to copy the behaviour of those around them, and characteristics such as smoking, drug use and obesity tend to spread through social networks.
But vanDellen’s study is thought to be the first to show that self-control is contagious across behaviours, said an UGA-Duke release.
“This isn’t an excuse for blaming other people for our failures,” vanDellen said. “Yes, I’m getting nudged, but it’s not like my friend is taking the cookie and feeding it to me; the decision is ultimately mine.”
VanDellen’s findings, published in the early online edition of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, are based on five separate studies conducted over two years with co-author Rick Hoyle at Duke University.