Self-Regulation Without Force: Can Awareness Leverage Reward to Drive Behavior Change?
Vera U. Ludwig, Kirk Warren Brown, Judson A. Brewer
Perspectives on Psychological Science August 28, 2020 DOI: 10.1177/1745691620931460 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Mindfulness training |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Ventromedial prefrontal cortex Cognitive psychology Self-control Behavior change Leverage statistics Orbitofrontal cortex Valuation finance Reinforcement learning Overeating Cognition Obesity |
| Citations | 69 |
| Key points | Proposes that awareness of subjective experience can change valuation of unhealthy behaviors, enabling self-regulatory shifts without force. |
Abstract
To reach longer-term goals and live aligned with their values, people typically must regulate their behavior. Effortful self-control is one way to achieve this and is usually framed as a forceful struggle between lower-level impulses and higher-level cognitive control processes. For example, people may restrain themselves from eating cake in order to lose weight. An alternative avenue of self-regulation draws on autonomous motivation: Individuals eat healthfully because it is values-congruent or intrinsically satisfying. Recent advances in the understanding of reward valuation on a neural level (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex/orbitofrontal cortex) and emerging treatments on a clinical level (e.g., mindfulness training) suggest a possible mechanistic convergence between brain and behavior that is consistent with a shift from forced to unforced behavior change. Here we propose how an overlooked aspect of reinforcement learning can be leveraged using a simple yet critical feature of experience that is not reliant on willpower: Bringing awareness to one's subjective experience and behavior can produce a change in valuation of learned but unhealthy behaviors, leading to self-regulatory shifts that result in sustainable behavior change without force.