That tasty bag of chips or that big bar of chocolate… It seems as if they are shouting:“Eat me, eat me!” Why is it so hard to ignore that tasty appetite?
It's not that you don't have the willpower to resist, but it's for a completely different reason, according to science:you're probably way too busy doing too many things at the same time.
Read also: Motivate yourself in seconds (and make that healthy choice)
According to the researchers at the University of South Wales, it is already difficult to ignore signals of a tasty reward such as a tasty snack, but that only becomes more difficult if we have to do something during the temptation. Apparently we can handle a certain number of tasks in our head, and if there are too many, it becomes increasingly difficult to resist temptations.
For the study, the researchers made a screen with squares, circles, diamond shapes, triangles and a colorful circle on it. They told participants to look at the screen and locate the diamond shape, but ignore the colorful circle, which served as the "great tempter." If they succeeded, they could make money. The participants managed very well to look at the diamond and ignore the colorful circle.
Then the participants were asked to remember some numbers and look at the screen with the figures again. The researchers focused on the movements of the participants' eyes and saw that they focused much more on the colorful circle, so that less money was earned.
From this, the researchers concluded that it becomes more difficult for us to say no when we are burdened with too many tasks.
