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Curiosity Weekly

The More You Wish for Self-Control, the Less of It You Have

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6964 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn about a nearly mile-long trackway of fossilized human footprints is the longest ever found, a trick to keep experiences feeling fresh and new, and the more you wish for self-control, the less of It you have.

This nearly mile-long trackway of fossilized human footprints is the longest ever found by Steffie Drucker

This Simple Trick Keeps All Your Favorite Experiences Feeling Fresh and New by Reuben Westmaas

The More You Wish for Self-Control, the Less of It You Have by Anna Todd

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

 

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-more-you-wish-for-self-control-the-less-of-it-you-have


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.

0:06.8

I'm Ashley Hamer.

0:07.8

And I'm Natalia Reagan.

0:09.3

Happy Thanksgiving to our listeners in the United States.

0:12.1

Today you'll learn about why the more you wish for self-control,

0:15.0

the less of it you have, the longest trackway of fossilized human footprints

0:20.0

ever found, and a trick to keep familiar experiences like a holiday meal at home

0:24.8

feeling fresh and new. Let's satisfy some curiosity. The holidays are here and that's got

0:32.2

many of us wishing for self-control.

0:35.0

You know, the discipline to not eat all the pie or not buy gifts for ourselves when we're supposed

0:40.2

to be shopping for others.

0:41.6

Well, be careful what you wish for. Because depending to be

0:43.0

careful what you wish for.

0:44.0

Because depending on the task, the more you wish for self-control,

0:48.0

the less of it you may end up having.

0:50.0

In a study published in 2017,

0:52.0

researchers measured people's desire for self-control by having them rate their level of agreement with statements like,

0:58.0

I want to be able to better resist temptations.

1:01.0

Then they began working on either an easy or a difficult assignment.

1:05.6

Those who did the best on the challenging assignment were the least likely to say they'd like to be better

1:10.4

disciplined and those who did the worst were the most likely to wish for more

1:14.4

self-control. Of course, it could be that the people who ace the difficult task did so precisely

...

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