We use a preference-over-menus framework to model a decision maker who is a¤ected by multiple temptations. Our two main axioms on preference, Exclusion and Inclusion, identify when the agent would want to restrict his choice set and when he would want to expand his choice set. An agent who is tempted would want to restrict his choice set by excluding the normatively worst alternative of that ch...

The present research explored the nature of automatic associations formed between short-term motives (temptations) and the overriding goals with which they interfere. Five experimental studies, encompassing several self-regulatory domains, found that temptations tend to activate such higher priority goals, whereas the latter tend to inhibit the temptations. These activation patterns occurred ou...

Temptation pervades modern social life, including the temptation to engage in infidelity. The present investigation examines one factor that may put individuals at a greater risk of being unfaithful to their partner: dispositional avoidant attachment style. The authors hypothesize that avoidantly attached people may be less resistant to temptations for infidelity due to lower levels of commitme...

The literature on consumer self-control emphasizes that temptation is costly and focuses on the costs of resisting temptation. We propose that temptation can entail not only costs but also benefits. These arise from self-signaling effects of how consumers handle tempting choice options. Succumbing to temptation is a (costly) self-signal of weak willpower, whereas resisting temptation is a (bene...

The abundance of calorie-dense low-nutrient food in everyday life raises the question as to how children deal with such opportunities. We investigate whether pre-exposure to the object of temptation in a situation that discourages consumption boosts children's ability to resist similar temptation subsequently. We show that 7-12-year-old boys, but not girls, demonstrate increased resistance to a...

I construct the life-cycle model with equilibrium default and preferences featuring temptation and self-control. The model provides quantitatively similar answers to positive questions such as the causes of the observed rise in debt and bankruptcies and macroeconomic implications of the 2005 bankruptcy reform, as the standard model without temptation. However, the temptation model provides cont...

This paper studies the empirical relevance of temptation and self-control using household-level data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. We estimate an infinite-horizon consumptionsavings model that allows, but does not require, temptation and self-control in preferences. To help identify the presence of temptation, we exploit an implication of the theory that a tempted individual has a prefe...