Ever wondered why you tend to overspend during Christmas or stray from your strict diet during the holiday season? Researchers of a new study found that such occasions motivate us to ignore goals and indulge ourselves with little treats instead.
Monitoring progress is a big motivation while trying to achieve some goal like losing weight or balancing finances. However, during the holiday season people intentionally ignore looking at the monitoring system they put in place, according to a press statement.
"There will be plenty of us over the Christmas period who will not check our bank balance or look at the calories on the back of the box of mince pies despite us wanting to be in control of our money or lose weight," said Thomas Webb, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The project proposes that there is an 'ostrich problem' such that people bury their heads in the sand."
Researchers term this as the "Ostrich problem" where people avoid information or don't want to know where they stand in achieving the goal they set for themselves. Avoiding monitoring could allow people to escape from the negative feelings associated with an accurate progress report. For example, people may not want to know exactly how much money they spent during the holiday season.
These findings are important for helping people stick to goals. If individuals intentionally avoid information then they may have problems achieving their goals. By understanding the mental process behind this sort of thinking, researchers can better help individuals in the future.
The findings are published in the journal Social and Personality Psychology Compass.
