Can we control our behaviour?
The days have started to lengthen, it's a time for vague notions of New Year, New Me. All it takes is a bit of willpower. But exercising willpower is difficult. We find out why.
The days have just started to lengthen, it's the time for vague notions of New Year, New Me. All it takes is a bit of willpower - setting us up perfectly for failure a few days or weeks down the road.
Exercising willpower is enormously difficult - not because we are weak, but because the effort required to change our habits is big. There's also a myriad of subtle environmental influences that can knock our good intentions off course.
While it might feel as if we have failed when we let our gym membership lapse and hit the chocolate, there are some very good reasons why this might be so. And knowing about them might just give us the edge and allow us to make real change.
Michael Blastland returns with The Human Zoo, exploring and exposing what makes us tick.
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier production for 麻豆社 Radio 4.
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How to break old habits and make new ones
Duration: 01:35
Weekly experiment
The psychologists at Warwick Business School have developed some online experiments that you can do for yourself.
Broadcasts
- Tue 14 Jan 2014 15:30麻豆社 Radio 4
- Mon 26 May 2014 23:00麻豆社 Radio 4
Featured in...
Lessons in Life
A selection of programmes looking at self-improvement.
New Year's Resolutions
A selection of archive recordings on making and breaking New Year's Resolutions.
Podcast
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The Human Zoo
Exploring the foibles, quirks and behaviour of that most fascinating of species - us