title: The push and pull of temptation: the bidirectional influence of temptation on self-control.
abstract: This article examines how people respond to the emergence of temptation in their environment. Three studies demonstrated that how people respond to temptation depends critically on their visceral state--whether or not they are actively experiencing visceral drives such as hunger, drug craving, or sexual arousal. We found that when people were in a "cold," nonvisceral state, the presence of temptation prompted cognition to support self-control. However, when people were in a "hot," visceral state, temptation prompted the same cognitive processes to support impulsive behavior. Study 1 examined how heterosexual men's level of sexual arousal influences their attention to attractive women. Study 2 examined whether satiated and craving smokers would engage in motivated reasoning in order to dampen (or enhance) the appeal of smoking when confronted with the temptation to smoke. Study 3 tested the boundaries of the interaction between visceral state and temptation.
authors: Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208, USA. L-nordgren@kellogg.northwestern.edu
authors: Loran F
authors: LF
authors: Nordgren
authors: Eileen Y
authors: EY
authors: Chou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004328:Drive; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger / Q000502:physiology; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012201:Reward; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult