| CLINTON, N.Y., Dec. 11, 2007 (AScribe Newswire) -- Your mother was right after all. It's important whom you choose as your playmates - you are likely to emulate their behavior. And that's critical if you are wrestling with willpower, or the lack thereof, during the holidays, according to Hamilton College Professor Heidi Ravven who studies the history of free will. Ravven's observations parallel a study published in the July 26, 2007 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine that suggests that obesity may be "socially contagious."
"We all think we have free will and that we can just push ourselves to do what we know we ought to do. And stop ourselves from doing what we shouldn't -- eating that extra piece of chocolate cake, downing one more cocktail. But it's not that simple," Ravven said, "and we really know that because we fail so often. Psychologists even have a name for our exaggerated sense that we control our actions better than we do. They call it the Fundamental Attribution Error. We are far more influenced by what our biology, biography, history and contemporary contexts make of us than we realize, although we are largely unaware of it."
"So what can we do? It turns out that what our mothers told us -- and what we often tell our children -- gets it more or less right. We need to place ourselves in situations and in groups that will support the decisions we know are right," Ravven said. "So choosing the right peer group is not just about teenagers but about us adults, too. If you don't want to overindulge, make sure you are with others who have the tendency to stop before it's too late." |
