Willingness is a core concept of addiction recovery programs—and a paradoxical one. Twelve-step programs emphasize that addicts cannot will themselves into healthy sobriety—indeed, that ego and self-reliance are often a root cause of their problem. Yet recovering addicts must be willing. That is, they must be open to the possibility that the group and its principles are powerful enough to trump a compulsive disease.
It’s a tricky concept for many and must be taken on faith. But now there may be science to back it up. Psychologist Ibrahim Senay of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign figured out an intriguing way to create a laboratory version of both willfulness and willingness—and to explore possible connections to intention, motivation and goal-directed actions. In short, he identified some key traits needed not only for long-term abstinence but for any personal objective, from losing weight to learning to play guitar.
Ask, Don’t Tell
Senay did this by exploring self-talk. Self-talk is just what it sounds like—that voice in your head that articulates what you are thinking, spelling out your options and intentions and hopes and fears, and so forth. It is the ongoing conversation you have with yourself. Senay thought that the form and texture of self-talk—right down to the sentence structure—might be important in shaping plans and actions. What’s more, self-talk might be a tool for exerting the will—or being willing.
Here is how Senay tested this notion. He had a group of volunteers work on a series of anagrams—changing the word “sauce” to “cause,” for example, or “when” to “hewn.” But before starting this task, half the volunteers were told to contemplate whether they would work on anagrams, while the others simply thought about the fact that they would be doing anagrams in a few minutes. The difference is subtle, but the former were basically putting their mind into wondering mode, while the latter were asserting themselves and their will. It is the difference between “Will I do this?” and “I will do this.”
The results were provocative. People with wondering minds completed significantly more anagrams than did those with willful minds. In other words, the people who kept their minds open were more goal-directed and more motivated than those who declared their objective to themselves.
These findings are counterintuitive. Think about it. Why would asserting one’s intentions undermine rather than advance a stated goal? Perhaps, Senay hypothesized, it is because questions by their nature speak to possibility and freedom of choice. Meditating on them might enhance feelings of autonomy and intrinsic motivation, creating a mind-set that promotes success.
Keeping an Open Mind
Senay designed another experiment to look at the question differently. In this study, he recruited volunteers on the pretense that they were needed for a handwriting study. Some wrote the words “I will” over and over; others wrote “Will I?”
After priming the volunteers with this fake handwriting task, Senay had them work on the anagrams. And just as before, the determined volunteers performed worse than the open-minded ones.
Next, Senay ran still another version of this experiment, one more obviously related to healthy living. Instead of anagrams, he changed the goal to exercise; that is, he measured the volunteers’ intentions to start and stick to a fitness regimen. And in this real-world scenario, he got the same basic result: those primed with the interrogative phrase “Will I?” expressed a much greater commitment to exercise regularly than did those primed with the declarative phrase “I will.”
What’s more, when the volunteers were questioned about why they felt they would be newly motivated to get to the gym more often, those primed with the question said things like: “Because I want to take more responsibility for my own health.” Those primed with “I will” offered strikingly different explanations, such as: “Because I would feel guilty or ashamed of myself if I did not.”
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22 Comments
Add CommentInteresting experimental results, though I think the conclusion is questionable. I remember another experiment where it was shown that people who exercised self-control for a period of time exhibited less self control after awhile. I wounder if the "I will" group had the same sort of fatigue effect here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also wonder about the long-term effects. After a physical workout I have less strength and endurance, but if I keep it up for a long enough time, eventually they both become much greater. I wonder if the same sort of thing may happen mentally. Perhaps those who keep saying "I will" would also eventually have greater willpower than those who say "will I?"
I will leaves very little room for being imperfect, as we all are as human beings. It often sets off a series of shameful feelings that eventually we will try to avoid and I will becomes "I won't and I will stop thinking about it too".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLeaving it to wonder allows us to fail without being a failure, to accept that we are simply human and enjoy what success we find. We stop seeing failure as us being a failure but instead see it as something to learn from and a way to grow and learn more about ourselves. By thinking this way we start to deal with the underlying issues that keep the I will idea from working in the first place.
Why, for the love of science, when reporting on a really interesting article, do journalists steadfastly refuse to provide a link to it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI daresay one would be forgiven for deducing that they are afraid that their interpretation would be found awry.
The abstract is available here:
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/4/499.abstract
A pre-publication copy is here: http://www.psych.illinois.edu/~dalbarra/pubs/Wll%20I%20I%20will.pdf
Ciaran, I applaud your inclusion of the links for the benefit of other readers. I agree that the links should have been included in the article in the first place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTTLG, your workouts get better not because you said you'd do them but because you did them... the physical act of completing the task (creating more mitochondria which then makes the same exercise easier).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suspect that completing the physical act of the "I will" statement would increase the ability to follow through when you make that statement in the future as it does with exercise. By this I mean if you consistantly DO, consistantly produce then likely you'll be able to produce when you use terms like "I will". You'll be super fit, production wise.
If, however, that statement causes you to never get started producing, or holds you back at the first sign of failure then, like irregular exercise, you will never improve and likely will eventually give up, at least until you get annoyed and start trying your "I will" exercise program again.
In my own experience I have mainly done difficult things through this proces: focus, steady aim, attempt, trial and retrial followed by some relaxation. During stage two the brain obviously works out connections. I never tell myself to will anything. I hate will-talk, and I am a so-called creative one. Is this compatible with the results?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFascinating and illustrative study and article!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am guessing the subjects were all American, with a mean age below 35? Just venturing a guess, try the same experiment on different age ranges in the US, and duplicate the experiment in Germany, Denmark and Norway. The results should be quite interesting.
Very insightful study. I'd call it attitude: The orientation of an aircraft or spacecraft relative to the direction of travel. We go forward in time, and attitude determines our ease of travel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis attitude is a feeling inside, and those two phrases feel differently. "I will" is narrow, like barreling straight ahead, where if you hit a bump, you're screwed. "Will I?" feels more open to possibilities, allowing just the natural momentum to carry one through. No forcing it.
Perhaps will is something we can only direct, and not force. Very Zen. Do by not-doing. Try to grasp it and you lose it. That sort of thing. What's it called? Oh yeah, paradox.
Is the frame for thought as powerful as the thought? If you could be handed the ultimate answer, would you be able to hold it in your mind? Why a duck?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor years I tried the "I will" method. All it accomplished was to make me feel like a failure. Then I began to embrace a more self controlled mind set where I said "I am going to start this and see where it goes". I started a number of things and a lot of the early ones are still not done. The ones started more recently are getting finished and with better results than I ever expected.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think the difference is that "I will" is an indeterminate future action where as "I am" is actually present tense. It also removed a lot of pressure by not stating a goal beyond letting things happen. I'm in my mid 40s so I have no idea how it would play out for younger or older people. The down side is that I can't use this at work and where I used to enjoy my job I now find it tedious and plodding. Starting my own business is starting to look really appealing. Too bad I have no idea what kind of business to start that I could make a living at and enjoy.
I believe the conclusion drawn is flawed, but not totally wrong. Completing anagrams is an inherently creative task, and is possibly favoured by the "wondering" state of mind. Perhaps a second experiment is needed, testing participants on a more mundane task such as stacking blocks, to see if the same result yields true.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suspect that the "I will" group is tapping into psychological reactance. When people are told they can/cannot do something, reactance causes a paradoxical effect. Reactance can explain a lot of confounding behavior.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy perspective comes from someone who has worked with a number of addictions, including alcohol, smoking and food. This article suggests one of those moments of sweet possibility when science and spirituality and something like Alcoholics Anonymous seem to share some common ground that might advance and inform each of them. Although I stopped drinking 24 years ago, how that happened has been something of a mystery; however, I have known always that the willingness that is so central to Twelve Steps philosophy was an essential ingredient. That belief was confirmed and deepened by the AA philosophy and Gerald Mays book, Will and Spirit, which talks a lot about the difference between willfulness and willingness. Fascinating and important stuff. I am grateful for the links and will be following them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the scenario "Will I" you are beginning to ask a question, which is taken in the mind and gives something else more power to say "Yes, I will" and then allows you to go and do it with more willpower. What this something else is a Spirit that drives the motivation to do it. That Spirit is God like and child like to gather unformed thoughts and correctly process them. It is thought that drives everything you do and by asking ye shall receive. You just need to learn about doing right things rather than wrong things and enabling the powers that be to control your thought and actions positively.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeems I stopped smoking with a similar trick. I wondered how long I would not smoke. It�s been many years so far.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould Ang's trick work for eating, I thought to myself while eating an entire box of macaroni and cheese fortified with an extra slice of American. I am wondering how long I will not binge-eat.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have gone white water rafting a number of times, and its exhausting and counter productive to constantly paddle in one direction.(I will, I will) It is ultimately more satisfying to navigate the rapids and paddle when necessary.(will I?, will I?)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA next experiment will be sorting subjects based on willpower and providing a mutable choice to one group over the type of task from a list and not the other one. In this way the subjects will be faced with the dilemma of carrying on or not. In that way we are testing whether the root of their will power is the growing mindset of resilience or the fixed mindset of performance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis study is consistent with the concepts developed by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset. "I will" demonstrates fixed mindset in which fear of failure stifles creativity and lowers performance. "Will I?" demonstrates growth mindset which simply accepts experiences as possibilities to learn.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJessica I'm so glad you said that. Uncommonly insightful. And helpful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you Ciaran. Much appreciated by those of us members of the general public without institutional affiliation and library access!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRecently when I was swimming, I found that if I urged myself to finish 50 meters, I felt tired and anxious during the process. It was suffering. However, when I told myself just keep swimming as long as my energy allows me to do so, I finished the same distance without any suffering and felt I could still go further! Just as I was wondering, I stumbled across this site. Kind of shedding some light on my wondering~Maybe sometimes over-emphasising the goal and the result would distract our mind from the right thing we should do in order to reach our goal. I am at my 20s and preparing for an important exam. Hope this wondering and win could do me some favour~
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