If you are likely to break your New Year’s resolution (or other commitments), you can still maintain the respect of your friends if you blame it on a shortage of money or other external factors rather than a shortage of money. These are the results of a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.
For this study, Dr Janina Steinmetz, from the City University of London, UK, analysed which excuses are better to increase the chances of people appearing to have good self-control even after they fail to keep a commitment. The researcher found that people were more likely to believe they had good self-control despite abandoning a commitment to live a healthier life if they claimed they did not have the money for a gym membership or expensive new cooking equipment, for example. On the other hand, people who claimed they didn’t have the time to exercise or to eat healthily were more likely to be seen as having poor self-control.
“Many resolutions or commitments involve either time or money, so the lack of one or the other seems to provide a good excuse for breaking it without adversely affecting how others see us. However, these two excuses are not equally effective. My six experiments involving around 1,200 people found that pleading a lack of money leads to better outcomes – in terms of perceptions about the individual – than citing lack of time,” said Dr Steinmetz.
For this study, 200 online participants read about people who failed to commit to eating healthier food. Some of those people blamed it on the cost of cooking good meals while others explained their problem was lack of time. Participants perceived the first group as having better self-control and were more likely to consider them potentially good gym partners.
“These results are surprising because people like to use lack of time as an excuse when they can’t do something. They equate lack of time with high status. However, the studies suggest we tend to think others could find the time to exercise or cook healthy meals if they were sufficiently motivated. That is why citing factors many of us have less control over, such as lack of money, can produce perceptions of having better self-control even when we abandon our New Year’s resolution or break a commitment,” said Dr Steinmetz.
The researcher believes these results are not just for New Year’s resolutions, but could have implications for local authorities, NHS organisations and others campaigning on public health issues – and health professionals working with obese people, for example.
“People often justify a diet heavy in fast food or TV dinners by saying it is quicker than buying and cooking healthy ingredients. Organisations promoting or marketing healthy lifestyles or working with patients around behaviour change can challenge that self-aggrandising claim that people are ‘just too busy’ to choose the healthy option. They can promote healthy but easy-to-prepare meals using affordable ingredients or the benefits of even half an hour’s aerobic activity. That would undermine the credibility of an all-too-familiar excuse,” explained Dr Steinmetz.
This information may also be helpful for those in the market for a new job or romance. “In job interviews and on dating website questionnaires, people are often invited to talk about a failure they’ve had in life. Obviously, we’ve all had them, but when explaining why, whether you’re looking for a job or for romance, blaming uncontrollable factors might help you convey a positive image. Although my research didn’t look at those contexts, it might be wise to avoid the temptation to blame lack of time,” concluded Dr Steinmetz.
Steinmetz J (2023) Too little money or time? Using justifications to maintain a positive image after self-control failure. European Journal of Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3010