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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Thinking of yourself as a busy person

can boost your self-control

Busyness is often thought of as a modern-day affliction, Sometimes they exposed them to messaging that
but it can also help you delay gratification and make subtly suggested that they were busy individuals. In
decisions that benefit you in the longer-term, according other experiments, they asked participants to write
to new research from the global business school what had been keeping them busy recently.
INSEAD.
Participants were then asked to make decisions in
“Every day, we make many decisions that involve different self-control domains related to food, exercise
choosing between our immediate and future well-being. or retirement savings, for example. Participants who
For instance, do we go to the gym after work, or do we had been reminded of their busy lifestyle were
just go home to relax in front of the television? Do we consistently more inclined than control participants to
save money for retirement, or do we splurge on a trip? make virtuous decisions.
Do we eat fruit or cake for dessert? When we perceive
ourselves to be busy, it boosts our self-esteem, tipping Importantly, the studies proved that a heightened sense
the balance in favour of the more virtuous choice,” said of self-importance was the key reason behind the
Amitava Chattopadhyay, Professor of Marketing increase in self-control. “When we temporarily
at INSEAD. dampened the sense of self-importance of participants
who otherwise felt busy, the self-control effect
In a new paper, Chattopadhyay and his co-authors, vanished,” said Chattopadhyay.
Monica Wadhwa, Associate Professor of Marketing and
Supply Chain Management, Fox School of Business at Implications for marketing and policymaking
Temple University and Jeehye Christine Kim, Assistant
Professor of Marketing at HKUST, show that the mere It is common for marketers to use busyness as a
perception of self as a busy person, or what they call a campaign concept, as many consumers can relate to it.
busy mindset, is a “badge of honour” that can be However, if the advertised product is an indulgent one
leveraged to promote better self-control. Their paper, – such as fast food – the campaign could
titled “When Busy Is Less Indulging: Impact of a backfire. “Busyness appeals should be more effective
Busy Mindset on Self-Control Behaviours”, is for products that require people to assert self-control,
forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Research. as would be the case for a gym chain, for example,”
said Chattopadhyay.
This paper shows there can be a flip side to being busy.
While people who feel under significant time pressure In addition, these findings could find societal
tend to get anxious and make hedonic decisions, those applications in the spheres of health promotion or food
who simply think of themselves as busy tend to make waste reduction. Policymakers may want to consider
virtuous choices as a result of their perceived self- ways to activate a busy mindset as a nudge to increase
importance. relevant self-control behaviours in the population.
(Source: INSEAD) ◊
Busyness as a way to boost self-esteem

Across a series of studies, the researchers activated the
busy mindset of participants through various means.
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