Guilt plays a role in whether admitting to a lapse in self-control helps us resist temptation in the future or makes us more likely to give in again, according to new research.
We’ve all slipped up when we’re trying to improve ourselves, perhaps by eating better or spending more wisely, and sometimes when we do, we tell someone. But little is known about what we actually do next. Does admission help us or hurt us in reaching our goals?
“Most research on confession examines either religious contexts or criminal ones,” said Kelly Haws, a professor of marketing at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. “What we wanted to look at was the consequences of confessing everyday lapses of self-control—the kind of instances where the only person you fail is yourself.”…