It happens to all of us. We know that doing something is going to hurt us in the long run but we do it anyway. The dieter eats the donut. The husband cheats on his wife. The new gym member skips a work-out.
Why do we do it?
The answer, I think, is that a course of action is never absolutely clear cut. One donut doesn’t make us fat. The wife may never find out. The gym will be open tomorrow.
If a situation isn’t black-and-white, there is wiggle room. Giving in to our cravings isn’t irrational. All that has happened is that the pros and cons have been reevaluated. The desire for short term reward overpowers concern for long-term potential costs.
I think it is pretty clear that cravings affect how we think. Sometimes cravings are so powerful it is like they decide what they want and then command the rational part of the brain to come up with an explanation for why it is okay.
The power of cravings and other emotions to affect our rational thinking leads to two questions I find interesting:
- How do we avoid doing things that are bad for us in the short term so that we can meet our long term goals?
- Given that we are never free of emotion, how confident can we be about any of our rational thought?
