Just wait 0.195 seconds before making your choice, according to new research published in Psychological Science.
Researchers had 28 women and men rate 160 foods based on taste, healthfulness, and overall satisfaction. Next, participants were shown 280 random computer pairings of these same foods—like chocolate and carrots—and were asked which one they preferred. By analyzing their mouse-cursor movements, researchers found that we process a food's basic attributes, such as taste, 195 milliseconds faster than we do its abstract properties, such as healthfulness.
"Taste is more intuitive, it's more instinctual," explains lead study author Nicolette Sullivan, a grad student at the California Institute of Technology. "Even babies know what they like."
But healthfulness is more complicated—it's something we learn, and it enters into the decision-making process later, if at all. So among those whose cursors initially moved toward the chocolate but clicked on the carrots, the difference was merely a split-second of thoughtfulness.
That, researchers speculate, may be the essence of self-control.
Try it yourself. Just take a few extra seconds to consider the healthier alternative the next time you're at the supermarket—or a super holiday party.
