43
" To quantify the power of peer-group pressure, economists studied a group of Chilean street vendors, seamstresses, and other low-income “microentrepreneurs” who had received loans from a nonprofit group. These people, mostly women, met in groups every week or two to receive training and to monitor the repayment of their loans. The economists Felipe Kast, Stephan Meier, and Dina Pomeranz randomly assigned these people to different savings programs. Some were simply given a no-fee savings account; others received the account plus the opportunity at their regular meetings to announce their savings goals and then have their progress discussed. The women subject to peer scrutiny saved nearly twice as much money as the others. The result seemed to confirm the power of the group, but where did the power come from? Could these effects be achieved with a “virtual peer group”? In a follow-up experiment, instead of discussing their savings out loud at a meeting, the Chilean women regularly received text messages noting their weekly progress (or lack thereof) along with information on how the rest of the savers in their group were doing. Surprisingly, these text messages seemed to be about as effective as the meetings, apparently because the messages provided the women with a virtual version of the same key benefits: regular monitoring and the chance to compare themselves with their peers. "
― Roy F. Baumeister , Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
47
" On average, the boys were about ten when the study began, and about sixteen when it ended. Decades later, when the boys had grown up and were in their forties and fifties, the notes were studied by a researcher named Joan McCord, who compared the teenage experiences with subsequent adult behavior—in particular, criminal behavior. A lack of adult supervision during the teenage years turned out to be one of the strongest predictors of criminal behavior. The counselors had recorded whether the boys’ activities outside of school were usually, sometimes, or rarely regulated by an adult. The more time the teenagers spent under adult supervision, the less likely they were to be later convicted of either personal or property crimes. "
― Roy F. Baumeister , Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
48
" The more that children are being monitored, the more opportunities they have to build their self-control. Parents can guide them through the kind of willpower-strengthening exercises we’ve discussed earlier, like taking care to sit up straight, to always speak grammatically, to avoid starting sentences with “I,” and to never say “yeah” for “yes.” Anything that forces children to exercise their self-control muscle can be helpful: taking music lessons, memorizing poems, saying prayers, minding their table manners, avoiding the use of profanity, writing thank-you notes. As they strengthen their willpower, children also need to learn when not to rely on it. In Mischel’s marshmallow experiments near Stanford, many children tried to resist temptation by staring right at the marshmallow and willing themselves to be strong. It didn’t work. Staring at the forbidden marshmallow kept reminding them of its allure, and as soon as willpower slackened for a moment, they gave in and ate it. By contrast, the children who managed to hold out—who waited fifteen minutes in order to get two marshmallows—typically succeeded by distracting themselves. They covered their eyes, turned their backs, fiddled with their shoelaces. That marshmallow experiment caused some researchers to conclude that controlling attention is what matters, not building willpower, but we disagree. Yes, controlling attention is important. But you need willpower to control attention. "
― Roy F. Baumeister , Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
55
" In this I have entered, day by day, the number of pages I have written, so that if at any time I have slipped into idleness for a day or two, the record of that idleness has been there, staring me in the face, and demanding of me increased labour, so that the deficiency might be supplied,” he explained. “There has been the record before me, and a week passed with an insufficient number of pages has been a blister to my eye, and a month so disgraced would have been a sorrow to my heart.” A blister to my eye. You won’t find anything in the psychological literature summarizing so vividly the impact of monitoring. "
― Roy F. Baumeister , Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
