When delayed gratification backfires

Much of life can seem like an endless cage match in which you ’re pitted against the forces of delayed gratification. Sticking to a diet or a gym regimen is hard when the payoff may not be seen or felt for months (or for decades, in a healthier later-life you), while tonight there’s tiramisu on the dessert menu and a Netflix binge awaiting if you park you rself on the couch.The difficulty of fighting the urge to consume in the here and now rather than wait is a well-trod area of research in academia.UCLA AndersonSuzanne ShuIn work that began with her Ph.D. thesis nearly 15 years ago, UCLA Anderson ’s Suzanne B. Shu has been exploring an opposite behavioral tic: Once we slap a “special” label on something, we do a 180-degree attitude shift and practice too much delayed gratification.Research in the 1980s and ’90s suggested that people believe consuming something indulgent will be better enjoyed if it is saved for a special occasion. The more special the item, the more we’ll hold out for just the right moment to enjoy it.Sounds benign, right? In an article published in the  Journal of Marketing Behavior, Shu and the University of Pennsylvania’s Marissa Sharif make a case that the pursuit of the perfect time to enjoy an indulgence is the enemy of actually enjoying a good experience.We convince ourselves that the best — the perfect — moment to indulge must be in the future, where our imaginations can conjure up all sorts of notions of an ideal time and s...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news